sheepishly
Americanadverb
Etymology
Origin of sheepishly
Explanation
Doing something sheepishly means expressing your embarrassment and shyness about it, like when you sheepishly admit how much you love watching soap operas on TV with your grandparents. When you think about how timid and shy a flock of sheep can be, the adverb sheepishly will make perfect sense. Anyone who acts in a way that betrays their shame and bashfulness is behaving sheepishly. You may smile sheepishly at your dad when he discovers you ate the last brownie or shrug your shoulders sheepishly when you teacher asks why you didn't finish your homework.
Vocabulary lists containing sheepishly
Ghost
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myPerspectives 8.1
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Brian's Winter
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There have been a number of occasions where these players and staff have approached the away end sheepishly this season following a poor display on the road.
From BBC • Jan. 28, 2026
When one researcher sheepishly named their number, it was $100 million.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 20, 2025
It was not, the new composers sheepishly replied.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 19, 2025
Ninety minutes later, he sheepishly retracted the statement.
From Salon • Sep. 17, 2025
Mama shot him that how dare you? look, but he just grinned sheepishly and stood with the rest of the children.
From "Stella by Starlight" by Sharon M. Draper
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
