black sheep

What it means

A black sheep is the member of a family or group whose behavior, choices, or values clash with everyone else's — sometimes seen as a disgrace, sometimes simply as the outsider. The phrase is most often used about families, but can also describe a controversial member of any otherwise cohesive group.

Examples

• He's always been the black sheep of the family — the only one who didn't go into law.
• Every dinner ends with someone calling me the black sheep.
• She's the black sheep on the team, but her ideas are usually the best.
• Being the black sheep eventually pushed him to start his own company.

Where it comes from

From 18th-century English farming, where black wool was harder to dye and therefore worth less than white wool — making a black lamb an economic disappointment in an otherwise white flock. The figurative use as 'family disgrace' was already established by the early 1800s.

Related idioms