The black sheep is the person a family or group sees as a disgrace or a failure. People often say it about themselves as a joke, when they have simply chosen a different path: everyone in the family is a doctor, and I became a musician.
When would you say black sheep?
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be the black sheep (of the family/team)
- My cousin is the black sheep of the family because he dropped out of university twice.
- Everyone in my family works in finance, so as an actor I'm the black sheep.
- He became the black sheep of the team after he shared our project plans with a competitor.
What changed
First versionEveryone in my family is a lawyer, and I'm a white crow because I became a chef.
RevisionEveryone in my family is a lawyer, and I'm the black sheep because I became a chef.
White crow looks like an idiom, but English doesn't have it, and a native speaker won't recognise it. For someone who has broken with the family tradition and meets disapproval, English says the black sheep. The article is usually the: there is only one such person in the family.
The odd one out is someone who is simply different from the rest, with no disapproval at all: I was the odd one out as the only person without a car. Black sheep adds the disapproval of the family or group. In an essay, the idiom is usually replaced with a description: someone the family disapproves of.
Your turn
My uncle spent Grandma's savings and never paid them back, so now he's the ___ of the family.
Show the answer
black sheep — The uncle behaved badly and the family disapproves of him, so he is the black sheep. The odd one out just means “different from everyone else”: there is no disapproval in it, and it isn't usually followed by of the family.
Write about someone (it can be you) who is seen as the black sheep of their family or at work. Say who it is and why they are called that.
My brother is the black sheep of the family because he quit his bank job to travel and still refuses to settle down.
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