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Definition of "sheepskin" [sheep•skin]

  • The skin of a sheep either tanned with the fleece left on or in the form of leather or parchment. (noun)
  • Informal A diploma. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "sheepskin" in a sentence
  • "One would have thought that the rise in the value of a sheepskin from a 30% lifetime wage premium over a high-school diploma in 1975 to a 90% premium in 2005 would have called forth an extraordinary wave of public support and public funding for investment in education that would have pushed that premium down somewhat: lots more Americans should be getting a higher education now than were getting one in the mid-1970s."
  • "Brad DeLong raises an important puzzle: One would have thought that the rise in the value of a sheepskin from a 30% lifetime wage premium over a high-school diploma in 1975 to a 90% premium in 2005 would have called ..."
  • "It is a spirit which caused people to come to Canada from every comer of the globe -- the English, the French, the men in sheepskin coats, the boat people."