Mary had a little lamb

Cultural

The first line of the children's poem “Mary's Lamb,” first published in the nineteenth century. It begins:
Mary had a little lamb,

Its fleece was white as snow,

And everywhere that Mary went,

The lamb was sure to go.

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.

But several of those madcap ideas flummoxed fans—Carlin pointed to the 1972 single “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” which was inspired by the nursery rhyme.

From The Wall Street Journal

Esther’s U.S.-born girl, who first struggled to plunk out “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on piano, now sends her fingers flying over the keyboard, delivering American pop classics and tunes from her parent’s native Mexico.

From Los Angeles Times

In it, Ewbank, a Kent State University professor emeritus, imagines how English poets — from Spenser and Shakespeare to Philip Larkin and Stevie Smith — might have reworked the Mother Goose classic “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

From Washington Post

Poetry has been a part of recorded sound ever since Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, showing off his creation by recording “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on tinfoil.

From Washington Post

Sarah Hale, the author most famous for her children's poem "Mary had a Little Lamb," used her position as editor of the best-selling magazine Godey's Ladies Book to advance a reformist agenda that included the abolition of slavery and the creation of holidays that promoted pious family values.

From Salon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023