Meaning of wolf in sheep's clothing | Babel Free

Definitions

Someone who or something which is harmful or threatening but disguised as something peaceful or pleasant.

idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“He ſaith, He doth not plead for all who go under the name of Miniſters in England; he fears there is many of them no better than Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, &c. Then why doth he not come out, and cry againſt them, but remain amongſt them in their Practice? For wherein can he clear himſelf of any one thing, which they are guilty of, which he confeſſes are Wolves in Sheep's Clothing? [...] I have as much ground to ſuſpect him to be one of the Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, as he has ground to ſuſpect his own Companions and Generation to be ſuch.”

“If the wolf was to be feared, the learned gentleman might rest assured it would be the wolf in sheep's clothing, the masked pretender to patriotism. It was not from the fang of the lion, but from the tooth of the serpent, that reptile that insidiously steals upon the vitals of the constitution and gnaws it to the heart ere the mischief is suspected, that destruction was to be feared.”

“The military power ſhould ever be kept diſtinct. We then ſee it, we know it by its proper name, we are on our guard, but when a power of a ſimilar kind intrudes itſelf upon us, under the name of a civil power, the wolf in ſheep's clothing deceives and endangers us.”

“A deceitful man is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He will appear innocent, cheerful, polite, attentive, kind, obliging, and abjectly condescending; but let him once get you into his power and he becomes more ferocious, more cruel, and more destructive than the most savage animals that ever trod in deserts uninhabited by rational beings.”

“And if he preached other than the right doctrine, wherefore did his superiors in the Carthusian convent permit it? If the shepherds turn a wolf in sheep's clothing into the flock, they should not blame the sheep for being worried.”

“[H]ere, then, was a community of good taste and kind feeling, no sharpers, no black-legs, no wolves in sheep's clothing.”

“So the tales were told ages before Æsop: and asses under lion's manes roared in Hebrew; and sly foxes flattered in Etruscan; and wolves in sheep's clothing gnashed their teeth in Sanscrit, no doubt.”

“The larvae, it seemed, had "passed" as aphids. Like "wolves in sheep's clothing" they appeared to have fooled the guardians of their prey.”

CEFR level