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单词 pig
释义

pign.1

Brit. /pɪɡ/, U.S. /pɪɡ/
Forms: Old English pic- (in compounds: see note below), Middle English pygkys (plural), Middle English (1800s– English regional (southern)) peg, Middle English–1500s pyg, Middle English–1500s pyge, Middle English–1500s pygg, Middle English–1500s pygge, Middle English–1700s pigg, Middle English–1700s pigge, Middle English– pig, 1600s bigg, 1600s pegg, 1600s pidg, 1600s pidge, 1700s pige (Scottish), 1800s pix (plural, in Phrases 8), 1900s– peeg (U.S. regional (east Midland)), 1900s– peg (Irish English (northern)).
Origin: Of uncertain origin.
Etymology: Origin uncertain (see below).The expected form in Old English would be *picga , *pigga , a weak masculine noun corresponding to other animal names, e.g. docga dog n.1, frocga , frogga frog n.1, hocga , hogga hog n.1 (see discussion at dog n.1). However, the word is attested only once in Old English, in the compound picbred (for picgbrēad ; < main sense + bread n.; with the shortened combining form compare gum-cynn , sunn-bēam , etc., and with pic- for picg- compare the spelling bric-bot (for brycg-bōt repairing of bridges)); with the use of picbred to gloss classical Latin glāns acorn, compare the following Latin gloss from an Old High German manuscript: glans, fructus quercus : cibus porcorum (see E. Steinmeyer & E. Sievers Die althochdeutschen Glossen (1895) III. 336). There are strikingly similar forms in Dutch, and it seems unlikely that the resemblance is purely coincidental, but no satisfactory explanation of the variation in form has been found. Compare Middle Dutch (western Holland), bagge (15th cent.), Middle Dutch (eastern) pogge , Middle Dutch pegsken , puggen (both in Teuthonista (1477)), Middle Dutch, Dutch regisonal (Flanders) vigghe , early modern Dutch bigge (1569), pigge (1599), Dutch regional (northern) pogge , Dutch big , †biggele , biggeken , biggetje , all in sense ‘young pig’; also Middle Low German bachelken , baggelken , German regional (Low German) Pogge , Bigg . The Middle Dutch surname Bicghe (1266) may also be related. Further connections have been suggested for a number of these words, but these encounter the fundamental difficulty that it is impossible to know which of the forms is primary (if indeed they are directly related). One possibility is that they might all ultimately show borrowing from a common (perhaps substratal) source. Another possibility is that a pattern of very localized transmission occurred, with widespread variation in form arising as a word which probably had a very familiar, affective character spread from one locality to another as a familiar, household term. A connection has also been suggested with Old Swedish pigger (Swedish pigg ) spike, point, but this seems very remote semantically. With sense 4 perhaps compare French cochon physically or morally coarse person, although this is first attested considerably later (end of the 17th cent.); similar uses are found in a number of other languages. With sense 9 compare slightly earlier squealer n. 2b. Attested early in nicknames and surnames, as Aluricus Piga (1066), Wulfric Pig (c1133), Johannis Pig (1186), Jordanus Pigman (1190), Ricardus Pyg (1268), and in place names, as Pyggeuorde (1296; now Pickeforde, Sussex).
I. The animal.
1.
a. An omnivorous, domesticated even-toed ungulate derived from the wild boar Sus scrofa, with a stout body, sparse bristly hair, and a broad flat snout for rooting in the soil, kept as a source of bacon, ham, pork, etc. Also with distinguishing word to specify the breed.The term pig is here used regardless of the age and sex of the animal (cf. sense 2a), but clear examples of this use are uncommon before the 19th cent.Recorded earliest in pig bread n. at Compounds 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > pig > [noun]
swineOE
hogOE
grice?c1225
pig?a1425
pork?a1425
grunterc1440
gussie15..
grunting-cheat1567
snorter1601
sow's-baby1699
grumphie1786
piggy-wig1870
turf-hog1880
troughster1892
OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 198 Glanx, glandis, picbred.
c1387–95 G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. 700 In a glas he hadde pigges bones.
?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 182 (MED) Þei speken nought, but þei gronten as pygges [v.r. swyne].
c1475 tr. Henri de Mondeville Surgery (Wellcome) f. 167v (MED) A pigge or anoþir beest schal be kut in þe myddis of þe wombe and leyd al hoot to þe guttis.
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. ii. 108 Not onely Horse, but Cows, Nay Pigs, were of the elder house.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1784 II. 552 I told him (says Miss Seward)..of a wonderful learned pig.
1820 P. B. Shelley Œdipus Tyrannus i. 9 Under your mighty ancestors, we pigs Were bless'd as nightingales on myrtle sprigs.
1863 C. Lyell Geol. Evid. Antiq. Man 23 The domesticated species comprise the dog, horse, ass, pig, goat, sheep, and several bovine races.
1915 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Island v. 53 That old pig of Mr. Harrison's..had wandered over here that day again and broke into the yard.
1948 L. E. H. Whitby Nurses' Handbk. Hygiene (ed. 8) v. 139 Rats should be exterminated..and attention paid to the cleanliness of the food given to pigs.
1995 Daily Tel. 30 Jan. 19/1 The beast, one of several tamworth pigs kept on the farm, sought sanctuary in nearby woodland.
b. Any of various mammals of other orders that are thought to resemble the pig in appearance or behaviour. Usually with distinguishing word.earth-, furze-, puff-, sea-pig, etc.: see the first element. See also guinea pig n., hedge-pig n.
ΚΠ
1427 in Notes & Queries (1964) 209 171/1 De pisse vocatis porpeys vnum huius pissem pro iiijor modijs frumenti et vnum huius pissem minorem vocatis a pygge pro duobus modijs frumenti.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iv. i. 2 Once the Hedge-Pigge whin'd. View more context for this quotation
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 16 You may see them [sc. Cheese Mites]..like so many Ginny-Pigs, munching and chewing the cud.
1785 G. Forster tr. A. Sparrman Voy. Cape Good Hope I. 270 The aard-varken, or earth-pig, which, probably, is a species of manis.
1826 M. R. Mitford Our Village II. 117 Driving about an unhappy porpoise in a wheelbarrow, and showing it at two-pence a head, under the name of a sea pig.
1865 Cornhill Mag. July 40 As in Gloucestershire, ‘furse~pig’ for hedgehog.
1910 W. H. Hudson Shepherd's Life (1993) xx. 161 He was very fond of the flesh of hedgehogs—‘pigs’, he called them.
1962 M. Burton Syst. Dict. Mammals of World 195 (heading) Aardvark, earth-pig, ant-bear (Orycteropus afer).
c. Any of various wild or feral members of the genus Sus or the family Suidae, with bristly hair and tusklike canines; esp. the wild boar. Usually with distinguishing word.bush-, veld-, wild pig, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > [noun] > group Suiformes (hippos and pigs) > family Suidae (swine)
swineOE
suilline1853
suid1864
suidian1880
pig1889
1785 G. Forster tr. A. Sparrman Voy. Cape Good Hope II. 279 We had the good luck to catch a young wood-pig.
1840 W. Deans Let. 30 Oct. in J. Deans Pioneers of Canterbury (1937) i. 29 I will visit it [sc. Palliser Bay] in company with 50 or 60 natives who are going to hunt wild pigs.
1889 R. S. S. Baden-Powell Pigsticking 67 I have even seen a pig break its leg in..the act of jumping down a small bank.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xxi. 730 Even-toed Ungulates (Artiodactyla) include pigs and hippopotamuses, the New World peccaries, the camels, [etc.].
1959 P. Frank Alas, Babylon iii. 50 Graf..rolled to his feet, hair bristling like a razorback pig.
1991 BBC Wildlife (BNC) Dec. 838 They include..13 species of pig—including warthog, pygmy hog, bearded pig, bushpig.
d. As a mass noun: pigs collectively, esp. as quarry in hunting.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > [noun] > group Suiformes (hippos and pigs) > family Suidae (swine) > sus scrofa (wild boar and descendants) > wild boar > collectively
swineOE
sounderc1400
sloth1616
pig1874
1874 Appleton's Jrnl. 31 Jan. 148/2 We struck off into the plain for a batch of high-grass, where..we put up a fine sounder of pig.
a1897 R. Kipling Bubbling Well Road in Writings in Prose & Verse of Rudyard Kipling (1897) V. 99 The villagers of Chachuran told me that a sounder of pig had gone into the Arti-goth patch.
1910 J. Buchan Prester John xiv. 233 Pig, unlike other beasts, drink not at night, but in the daytime.
1938 Times 2 May 12/2 An uproar, in which were mingled the rasping roars of a leopard and the angry grunts and squeals of a number of pig.
1990 Antiquaries Jrnl. 70 123/2 The surviving faunal record shows the upper Danube hunters killing more roe deer and pig than their Scanian counterparts.
2.
a. A young hog; a piglet. Cf. sucking-pig n. Now chiefly North American.Chiefly used in periods when and regions where the usual words for an adult pig are swine, hog, sow, or boar.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > pig > [noun] > young
farrowa700
grice?c1225
piga1250
hogling1377
porketa1555
porkling1561
porkin1570
swine shoat1581
hog-babe1610
hoglet1611
pigling1612
piggy1625
gruntling1686
porkrel1694
piggy-wiggy1766
griceling1782
boneen1827
slip1832
piglet1839
slip-pig1844
squeaker1861
piggy-wig1870
snork1891
snorker1891
a1250 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Nero) (1952) 90 Þe suwe of ȝiuernesse, þet is glutunie, haueð pigges [c1230 Corpus Cambr. gris] þus i nemmed.
a1250 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Nero) (1952) 90/32 Þus beoð þeos pigges i ueruwed.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 237 (MED) In þat stoon is i cornere white sowe wiþ þritty pigges [L. porcellis].
?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 47 (MED) The Sarazines bryngen forth no pigges [v.r. grysez; Fr. porceaux], nor þei eten no swynes flessch.
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 211 Gryce, swyne or pygge, porcellus, nefrendis.
?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. xxxvii And if thy sowe haue mo pygges than thou wylt reyre: sell them or eate them.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iii. f. 149 Euery Pigge doth knowe his owne pappe.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 661 As in English we call a young swine a Pigge.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. 180/1 In English we call a young Swine a Bigg; a sucking or weaning Bigg.
1787 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 77 236 In that time she had eight farrows..and had in all seventy-six pigs.
1869 R. D. Blackmore Lorna Doone I. xvii. 192 Two farrows of pigs ready for the chapman.
1885 Rep. Indian Affairs (U.S.) 11 The increase has been 8 horse and mule colts, 50 calves, and 150 pigs.
1903 Dialect Notes 2 316 ‘Pig’ is only applied to sucklings [in Missouri], while in the North it is generic.
1905 Notes & Queries 4 512 About here [i.e. in Hampshire] a pig is a pig from birth till six or eight months old, when it becomes a boar, a hog, or a sow.
1988 Harrowsmith Jan. 43/3 If nature has equipped sows to lie down and have pigs outdoors, why not spare ourselves the cost of an expensive farrowing house?
†b. The young of certain other mammals thought to resemble the pig. Obsolete. rare.In quot. c1440: a young porcupine. In quot. 1575: a young badger.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Mustelidae (weasel, marten, otter, or badger) > [noun] > genus Meles (badger) > young
pigc1440
gricea1637
c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure 183 (MED) Pacokes and plouers in platers of glode, Pygges of porke-despyne, þat pasturede neuer.
1575 G. Gascoigne Noble Arte Venerie lxvi. 183 There are Foxes and theyr Cubbes, and Badgerdes and theyr Pigges.
c. in pig (also †with pig): (of a sow) pregnant; also (colloquial, humorous or derogatory) of a woman. Cf. in-pig adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > pig > [adjective] > of a sow > pregnant
in or with farrow1577
in pig1886
in-pig1950
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > pregnancy or gestation > [adjective]
greatc1175
with childc1175
with childc1300
baggeda1400
bounda1400
pregnant?a1425
quicka1450
greaterc1480
heavyc1480
teeming1530
great-bellied1533
big1535
boundenc1540
impregnate1540
great-wombeda1550
young with child1566
gravid1598
pregnate1598
pagled1599
enceinte1602
child-great1605
conceived1637
big-bellieda1646
brooding1667
in the (also a) family way1688
in the (also that) way1741
undelivered1799
ensient1818
enwombeda1822
in a delicate condition1827
gestant1851
in pod1890
up the (also a) pole1918
in a particular condition1922
preg?1927
in the spud line1937
up the spout1937
preggy1938
up the stick1941
preggers1942
in pig1945
primigravid1949
preggo1951
in a certain condition1958
gestating1961
up the creek1961
in the (pudding) cluba1966
gravidated-
1507–8 in D. Dymond Reg. Thetford Priory (1995) I. 243 For a sow with pygge.
1706 J. Stevens New Spanish Dict. ii. at Hay It..has a Face like a Monkey, a Belly like a Sow in Pig.
1743 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Nov. ix. 324 If a Sow with Pig is kept on Beech Maste..it will cause the Pigs to be hairless.
1798 W. Marshall Rural Econ. Southern Counties II. viii. 204 Even sows in pig are sometimes kept there, until they farrow.
1886 J. Long Bk. Pig iv. 59 They [sc. gilts] are less costly than if either tolerably fat or, as it is called, ‘in pig’, or in farrow.
1917 W. Powell-Owen Pig-Keeping v. 59 Sows that are in-pig do best when given their liberty.
1945 N. Mitford Pursuit of Love x. 83 I am in pig, what d'you think of that?
1976 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Nanny Bird vii. 86 Since when had her mother paid the slightest attention.., until she had to get herself in pig.
1997 Countryman Spring 66 We were warned it would be difficult to get her in pig at all—but, luckily, we found a local boar.
3. The animal or its flesh as an article of food.Pig was formerly used to refer to a young or sucking pig but is now chiefly restricted to an animal cooked whole. The more usual words for the meat are pork and (for particular types) bacon and ham. See also pigmeat n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > pork > [noun]
swine flesheOE
porkc1300
baconc1330
brawn1377
pig1381
pork flesh?a1425
boara1475
gricea1475
hog flesh1528
hog meat1573
grunting-peck1699
hog1744
pigmeat1754
1381 Diuersa Servicia in C. B. Hieatt & S. Butler Curye on Inglysch (1985) 71 Nym pyggus and hennys & oþer maner fresch flesch.
a1450 in T. Austin Two 15th-cent. Cookery-bks. (1888) 40 (MED) Broche þin Pygge.
a1486 (c1429) Menu Banquet Hen. VI in Archaeologia (1900) 57 57 (MED) Pigge endored.
?1534 L. Cox tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Epist. Paule vnto Titus i. f. xxix They feare to be contaminate yf they eate eyther porke or pigge.
1586 T. Bright Treat. Melancholie xxxix. 259 Pigge..farced with sage.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) ii. i. 65 The Pigge quoth I, is burn'd. View more context for this quotation
1684 J. Bunyan Pilgrim's Progress 2nd Pt. Authors Way sig. A5 Some start at Pigg, slight Chicken, love not Fowl. View more context for this quotation
1727 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Oeconomique (Dublin ed.) at Galantine A Pig may also be garnished with its Skin well breaded.
1773 O. Goldsmith She stoops to Conquer ii. 28 To men that are hungry, pig, with pruin sauce, is very good eating.
1823 C. Lamb Elia 276 (title) A dissertation upon roast pig.
1894 Outing 24 355/1 Roast pig is a joy for ever to a Samoan.
1920 Times 15 June 11/1 (heading) The first roast pig.
1994 Mod. Maturity July 42/2 At the resort's traditional Tahitian Feast..I porked out on the roast pig.
II. Chiefly derogatory. A person or thing likened to a pig, in being considered unpleasant, unattractive, greedy, etc.
4. derogatory. A boorish, coarse, obstinate, or disagreeable person or animal; (in later use esp.) a lecherous or sexist man.male chauvinist pig: see male chauvinist adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > inferior person > [noun] > as abused
warlockOE
swinec1175
beastc1225
wolf's-fista1300
avetrolc1300
congeonc1300
dirtc1300
slimec1315
snipec1325
lurdanc1330
misbegetc1330
sorrowa1350
shrew1362
jordan1377
wirlingc1390
frog?a1400
warianglea1400
wretcha1400
horcop14..
turdc1400
callet1415
lotterela1450
paddock?a1475
souter1478
chuff?a1500
langbain?c1500
cockatrice1508
sow1508
spink1508
wilrone1508
rook?a1513
streaker?a1513
dirt-dauber?1518
marmoset1523
babiona1529
poll-hatcheta1529
bear-wolf1542
misbegotten1546
pig1546
excrement1561
mamzer1562
chuff-cat1563
varlet1566
toada1568
mandrake1568
spider1568
rat1571
bull-beef1573
mole-catcher1573
suppository1573
curtal1578
spider-catcher1579
mongrela1585
roita1585
stickdirta1585
dogfish1589
Poor John1589
dog's facec1590
tar-boxa1592
baboon1592
pot-hunter1592
venom1592
porcupine1594
lick-fingers1595
mouldychaps1595
tripe1595
conundrum1596
fat-guts1598
thornback1599
land-rat1600
midriff1600
stinkardc1600
Tartar1600
tumbril1601
lobster1602
pilcher1602
windfucker?1602
stinker1607
hog rubber1611
shad1612
splay-foot1612
tim1612
whit1612
verdugo1616
renegado1622
fish-facea1625
flea-trapa1625
hound's head1633
mulligrub1633
nightmare1633
toad's-guts1634
bitch-baby1638
shagamuffin1642
shit-breech1648
shitabed1653
snite1653
pissabed1672
bastard1675
swab1687
tar-barrel1695
runt1699
fat-face1740
shit-sack1769
vagabond1842
shick-shack1847
soor1848
b1851
stink-pot1854
molie1871
pig-dog1871
schweinhund1871
wind-sucker1880
fucker1893
cocksucker1894
wart1896
so-and-so1897
swine-hound1899
motherfucker1918
S.O.B.1918
twat1922
mong1926
mucker1929
basket1936
cowson1936
zombie1936
meatball1937
shower1943
chickenshit1945
mugger1945
motherferyer1946
hooer1952
morpion1954
mother1955
mother-raper1959
louser1960
effer1961
salaud1962
gunk1964
scunge1967
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > low rank or condition > lout or boor > [noun]
carter1509
clumpertonc1534
club1542
pig1546
lout1548
clinchpoop1555
clout-shoe1563
loose-breech1575
hoyden1593
clunch1602
clod1607
camel1609
clusterfist1611
loon1619
Grobian1621
clota1637
hoyde1636
Hottentot1710
yahoo1726
polisson1866
mucker1884
bohunk1908
hairy ape1931
cafone1949
trog1956
oafo1959
1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue ii. vii. sig. I.iii v What byd me welcom pyg.
1681 Heraclitus Ridens 30 Aug. 1/2 Adieu ye Whiggs, Poor Protestant Pigs The Tories now will thunder us.
1729 C. Johnson Village Opera ii. iv. 47 Do not think I could love a Pig; no. I despise, I scorn, detest thee.
1751 D. Garrick Let. 25 Aug. (1963) I. 176 Your most Obedient & humble Pig D. Garrick.
1846 C. Dickens Pictures from Italy 8 He calls him a Thief, and a Brigand, and a Pig, and what not.
1891 H. S. Constable Horses, Sport & War 46 He is usually called a sulky pig of a horse.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xviii. [Penelope] 725 Hed be so clean compared with those pigs of men I suppose never dream of washing it from 1 years end to the other.
1991 J. Diski Happily ever After ii. 22 Liam was a typical bourgeois pig of a landlord whose motives were not to be trusted.
5. A woman. In early use apparently as a term of endearment (cf. pigsney n. 1). In later use derogatory (chiefly U.S.): a female prostitute; a promiscuous or unattractive woman.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > woman > [noun]
wifeeOE
womaneOE
womanOE
queanOE
brideOE
viragoc1000
to wifeOE
burdc1225
ladyc1225
carlinec1375
stotc1386
marec1387
pigsneyc1390
fellowa1393
piecec1400
femalea1425
goddessa1450
fairc1450
womankindc1450
fellowessa1500
femininea1513
tega1529
sister?1532
minikinc1540
wyec1540
placket1547
pig's eye1553
hen?1555
ware1558
pussy?a1560
jade1560
feme1566
gentlewoman1567
mort1567
pinnacea1568
jug1569
rowen1575
tarleather1575
mumps1576
skirt1578
piga1586
rib?1590
puppy1592
smock1592
maness1594
sloy1596
Madonna1602
moll1604
periwinkle1604
Partlet1607
rib of man1609
womanship?1609
modicum1611
Gypsy1612
petticoata1616
runniona1616
birda1627
lucky1629
she-man1640
her1646
lost rib1647
uptails1671
cow1696
tittup1696
cummer17..
wife1702
she-woman1703
person1704
molly1706
fusby1707
goody1708
riding hood1718
birdie1720
faggot1722
piece of goods1727
woman body1771
she-male1776
biddy1785
bitch1785
covess1789
gin1790
pintail1792
buer1807
femme1814
bibi1816
Judy1819
a bit (also bundle) of muslin1823
wifie1823
craft1829
shickster?1834
heifer1835
mot1837
tit1837
Sitt1838
strap1842
hay-bag1851
bint1855
popsy1855
tart1864
woman's woman1868
to deliver the goods1870
chapess1871
Dona1874
girl1878
ladykind1878
mivvy1881
dudess1883
dudette1883
dudine1883
tid1888
totty1890
tootsy1895
floozy1899
dame1902
jane1906
Tom1906
frail1908
bit of stuff1909
quim1909
babe1911
broad1914
muff1914
manhole1916
number1919
rossie1922
bit1923
man's woman1928
scupper1935
split1935
rye mort1936
totsy1938
leg1939
skinny1941
Richard1950
potato1957
scow1960
wimmin1975
womyn1975
womxn1991
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1593) iii. sig. Gg4 The prettie pigge, laying her sweete burden about his neck.
1916 H. N. Cary Slang of Venery II. 37 Pig, an epithet of disparagement. In America, a man so terms his mistress.
1931 E. O'Neill Hunted iv, in Mourning becomes Electra 155 That yaller-haired pig with the pink dress on!
1966 Sunday Times 13 Feb. (Colour Suppl.) 35/4 Pig, an unattractive girl.
1977 P. G. Winslow Witch Hill Murder ii. 227 I had some beautiful birds in London, but I had to stay on the good side of that pig, or she might have noticed more than was good for her.
1991 S. Faludi Backlash Introd. p. xxi Virulently misogynist comics..who called women ‘pigs’ and ‘sluts’.
†6. Printing slang (humorous or derogatory). A pressman in a printing office. Cf. earlier hog n.1 8. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > printer > [noun]
printer?1492
presser1545
imprinter1552
pressman1578
typographer1643
hog1732
typograph1737
pig1806
hand pressman1842
typographist1851
1806 in E. Howe London Compositor (1947) 121 The same gentleman..attempted to smother a poor journeyman pig in the dust-hole.
1857 Notes & Queries 2nd Ser. 4 192/1 Compositors are jocosely called mokes or donkeys, and pressmen pigs. These nicknames..were well understood in the early part of the last century.
1888 C. T. Jacobi Printer's Vocab. 100 Pigs, pressmen are thus denominated by compositors in order to annoy them.
7. slang (derogatory). A police officer.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > policeman
truncheon officer1708
runner1735
horny1753
nibbing-cull1775
nabbing-cull1780
police officer1784
police constable1787
policeman1788
scout1789
nabman1792
nabber1795
pig1811
Bow-street officer1812
nab1813
peeler1816
split1819
grunter1823
robin redbreast1824
bulky1828
raw (or unboiled) lobster1829
Johnny Darm1830
polis1833
crusher1835
constable1839
police1839
agent1841
johndarm1843
blue boy1844
bobby1844
bluebottle1845
copper1846
blue1848
polisman1850
blue coat1851
Johnny1851
PC1851
spot1851
Jack1854
truncheonist1854
fly1857
greycoat1857
cop1859
Cossack1859
slop1859
scuffer1860
nailerc1863
worm1864
Robert1870
reeler1879
minion of the law1882
ginger pop1887
rozzer1888
nark1890
bull1893
grasshopper1893
truncheon-bearer1896
John1898
finger1899
flatty1899
mug1903
John Dunn1904
John Hop1905
gendarme1906
Johnny Hop1908
pavement pounder1908
buttons1911
flat-foot1913
pounder1919
Hop1923
bogy1925
shamus1925
heat1928
fuzz1929
law1929
narker1932
roach1932
jonnop1938
grass1939
roller1940
Babylon1943
walloper1945
cozzer1950
Old Bill1958
cowboy1959
monaych1961
cozzpot1962
policeperson1965
woolly1965
Fed1966
wolly1970
plod1971
roz1971
Smokey Bear1974
bear1975
beast1978
woodentop1981
Five-O1983
dibble1990
Bow-street runner-
1811 Lexicon Balatronicum (at cited word) Pig, a China street pig; a Bow-street officer.
1834 Sun (N.Y.) 20 June 2 The person with whom he had been conversing was one of the ‘Pigs’.
1848 G. Thompson House Breaker 6 We have cracked a crib, and the pig's are after us. [Note] We have broken into a house and the officers are after us.
1917 E. Fenwick Diary 23 Nov. (1981) 186 I hate the gendarmes... I found the two ‘pigs’ round the corner..and they walked me home to see my ‘permis de sejour’.
1967 C. Drummond Death at Furlong Post v. 63 I had to give the local P.C. a lift. I dropped the pig at Packenham.
1973 Black World July 56/1 The pigs swooped by, going west, the emergency light blinking green.
1995 Daily Mail 2 Jan. 3/1 He intends you to be done for drink-driving. He has vowed to get his own back on you and report you to the pigs.
8.
a. derogatory. A greedy, lazy, or fat person or animal.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > bodily shape or physique > broad shape or physique > [noun] > fat or plump shape or physique > person having
porknellc1540
porkling1541
porridge belly1580
tallow catch1598
woolsack1598
candle-mine1600
trillibub1600
bauson1607
panguts1617
firkin1630
porker1665
poke pudding1706
pudsy1710
jolluxa1797
fatty1797
fattener1817
rotundity1824
tun-butt1829
stout party1855
pig1858
fatlinga1861
slob1861
bladder of lard1864
butterball1877
lard-bladder1891
jelly-belly1896
tub1897
barrel1909
flop1909
pussy-gut1909
gutbucket1919
Billy Bunter1939
endomorph1940
Fatso1944
slug1959
1858 Harper's Mag. Mar. 573 (caption) A greedy pig.
1894 R. Kipling Jungle Bk. 157 He took long strides up to Kala Nag [sc. an elephant], called him a fat old pig.
1903 L. Weiner Anthol. Russ. Lit. II. 413 I am unable to understand why an easy life makes a pig of a man.
1938 Mansfield (Ohio) News-Jrnl. 26 Feb. 9/2 When he had shouted ‘..Open the door you lazy pig’, footsteps shuffled, the door was unlocked and opened.
1995 Private Eye 27 Jan. 3/3 Not everyone in the British boardroom is a greedy pig.
b. colloquial. to make a pig of oneself: to be a glutton, to be greedy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > appetite > excessive consumption of food or drink > eat or drink to excess [verb (intransitive)] > be gluttonous
gourmanda1450
gormandize1548
belly-cheer1549
gurmander1570
overfeed1589
overeat1590
glutton1602
cram1609
gutc1616
pamper1620
guttle1654
gluttonize1656
engorge1667
stuff1728
guddle1825
to make a pig of oneself1873
guts1903
1873 Appletons' Jrnl. 9 Aug. 191/2 The good people of Glasgow have just drawn down upon themselves a severe rebuke from the pulpit, on account of their unfortunate propensity to make pigs of themselves.
1903 N.Y. Times 27 Feb. 10/2 Did you ever tell her that she had dyspepsia because she made a pig of herself eating?
1937 L. O'Flaherty Famine ii. 16 If you didn't make a pig of yourself with poitheen yesterday you wouldn't have the poith to-day.
1991 F. King Ant Colony (1992) xvii. 147 I do love chocolates. Always make a pig of myself over them.
9. Chiefly U.S. slang (derogatory). An informer. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > information > informing on or against > [noun] > informer
wrayerc1000
wrobberc1300
discoverera1400
denunciator1474
informer1503
denouncer1533
detector1541
delatora1572
sycophant1579
inquisitor1580
scout1585
finger man1596
emphanista1631
quadruplator1632
informant1645
eastee-man1681
whiddler1699
runner1724
stag1725
snitch1785
qui tam1788
squeak1795
split1819
clype1825
telegraph1825
snitcher1827
Jack Nasty1837
pigeon1847
booker1863
squealer1865
pig1874
rounder1884
sneak1886
mouse1890
finger1899
fizgig1902
screamer1902
squeaker1903
canary1912
shopper1924
narker1932
snurge1933
cheese eater1935
singer1935
tip-off1941
top-off1941
tout1959
rat fink1961
whistle-blower1970
1874 Hotten's Slang Dict. (rev. ed.) 253 Pig,..an informer.
1904 ‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing 251/1 Pig, prisoner who reports another; stool-pigeon.
1918 Amer. Law Rev. 52 891 A ‘prison stool pigeon’ is a ‘trusty’, ‘psalm singer’ or ‘pig’.
1935 Amer. Speech 10 19/1 Pig. n. A yellow crook; a stool pigeon.
10. colloquial. As predicate: an unpleasant or troublesome thing. Frequently in a pig of a —.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > offensiveness > offensive thing, person, or place > [noun]
bysena1525
bysym1568
bastard1675
nasty1825
objectionable1836
man-killer1876
undesirable1883
swine1892
stinker1917
bugger1922
pig1923
snake-pit1941
pisser1957
dickhead1960
1923 H. Hutchinson Fate of Osmund Brett xiii. 181 It was a pig of a dark night.
1978 Hot Car June 93/4 The car became a pig to start.
2004 Guardian (Nexis) 29 July (Features section) 8 It has been a real pig of a week.
III. Other uses.
11. Chiefly Metallurgy. An oblong mass of metal as formed by molten metal run from a furnace and allowed to solidify. Cf. sow n.1 6.In this connection sow is found earlier. The original differentiation of sow and pig (if there was any) was probably in the size, the smaller masses being called pigs. The modern explanation, i.e. that the sow comes from the main channel, and the pigs from derivative channels into which the liquid metal is run from the furnace (applicable only to iron) is a later adaptation of the terms to the development of the iron industry, of which the earliest indication is in quot. 1686 at sense 11d, where however ‘sow’ and ‘piggs’ may refer merely to size. Cf. also piece n. 4c.
a. An oblong mass of lead.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > base metal > [noun] > lead > lead in specific form > pig or half-pig
sow1481
pig1589
piece1747
stave1864
1589 J. White in Capt. Smith Virginia (1624) 15 We found..many barres of Iron, two pigs of Lead,..and such like heauie things throwne here and there.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 260/2 A Pig or Sow of Lead, is generally about three hundred Pounds apiece.
1747 W. Hooson Miners Dict. sig. Iiv Amongst Lead Merchants it [sc. a Fodder] is nine Pieces or Piggs of Lead.
1811 J. Farey Gen. View Agric. Derbyshire I. 382 The ports on the Trent and the Humber, were always the destination of the Pieces or half Pigs of Lead.
1865 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire (new ed.) VIII. lxvi. 206 Inscriptions on pigs of lead, &c. refer to the reigns of Claudius.
1937 Sun (Baltimore) 4 Aug. 14/1 The ballast, consisting of lead ‘pigs’ was removed from the depths of Endeavour's bilge.
1998 P. O'Brian Hundred Days viii. 212 The fine stout telescope..stood on a bronze tripod weighed down and steadied by pigs of lead.
†b. An oblong mass of any of various metals other than lead and iron. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > metal in specific state or form > [noun] > cast metal > in form of pigs > pig, ingot, or bar
gada1325
lingot1488
rod1494
niggot1579
nygot1579
ingot1582
sow1590
pig1620
forge-pig1839
1620 J. Taylor Praise of Hemp-seed 5 Ships..That bring gold, siluer, many a sowe and pig.
1683 London Gaz. No. 1873/3 150 Piggs of Silver.
1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World x. 312 We return'd for what we had of him some bales of coarse broad cloth,..some piggs of copper.
1866–7 G. Stephens Old-Northern Runic Monuments I. ii. 372 This Pig of Tin is well known and has often been engraved.
1894 Times 16 Aug. 6/4 Zinc in blocks or pigs, one cent per pound.
1909 ‘M. Twain’ Is Shakespeare Dead? 74 I have been a quartz miner in the silver regions... I know all about..how to cast the bullion into pigs.
1924 A. J. Allmand & H. J. T. Ellingham Princ. Appl. Electrochem. (ed. 2) xxii. 536 After the conclusion of the experiments the furnace was employed in the manufacture of ferro-nickel pig from roasted pyrrhotite.
c. An oblong mass of iron.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > iron > [noun] > a pig of iron
sow1539
pig1657
1657 W. Paine Let. in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. (1865) 4th Ser. VII. 402 They desire youer iron to be cast in pigs, because it wil be beter to handel.
1678 Philos. Trans. 1677 (Royal Soc.) 12 934 From these Furnaces, they bring their Sows and Pigs of Iron (as they call them) to their Forges.
1769 T. Gray Jrnl. 9 Oct. in Corr. (1971) III. 1102 The iron is brought in pigs to Milthrop by sea from Scotland &c.
1829 S. Glover Hist. County of Derby I. 82 A pig of iron is three feet and a half in length, and of one hundred pounds weight.
1883 Cent. Mag. Jan. 478/1 The iron ore put in a blast-furnace to be cast in the form of pigs, is subjected to one heat in that step.
1946 V. N. Wood Metall. Materials i. 9 Machine casting of pig iron has the advantage that no sand adheres to the pig.
1990 C. Holland Bear Flag (1992) xxvi. 204 The Russians had brought them six pigs of iron when they came for their money.
d. Each of the smaller channels branching off from the main channels into which the molten metal from a smelting furnace is run. Cf. sow n.1 6e.Quot. 2003 represents an extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > metalworking equipment > [noun] > casting equipment > sand-moulding equipment > channel in
pig1665
pig mould1839
1665 R. Pratt Notebk. 31 Aug. in R. T. Gunther Archit. Sir Roger Pratt (1928) xvii. 279 Lead is to be considered: (1) as to its qualities, whether hard, which will be found by its ringing, whilst yet in the pigs and afterwards by its smooth running, or soft which will be known by its dints whilst in the pig.
1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. iv. 162 They make one larger furrow than the rest,..which is for the Sow, from whence they draw two or three and twenty others (like the labells of a file in Heraldry) for the piggs.]
1806 R. Forsyth Beauties Scotl. III. 104 The lateral moulds or channels are called pigs; and hence cast-iron receives the appellation of pig-iron.
1856 C. Richardson Dict. Suppl. s.v. When the lead is tapped from the smelting furnace, it runs down a straight channel, technically called the sow, from which branch off on each side some smaller channels, called pigs.
1984 E. P. DeGarmo et al. Materials & Processes in Manuf. (ed. 6) iv. 87 Earlier processing involved the solidification into small molds known as pigs, from whence the name ‘pig iron’.
2003 Sacramento Bee 29 June l9 I was working in the back shop of the Democrat..—pouring hot lead into molds called ‘pigs’ for the Linotype machines.
e. As a mass noun: = pig iron n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > iron > [noun] > type of iron > cast iron > cast iron in form of pigs
sow-iron1608
pig iron1665
sow-metal1674
pig1763
1763 N.Y. Gaz. 24 Oct. 4/3 (advt.) William Hawxburst still carries on the Stirling Iron works and gives the best encouragement for..finers of pigg, and drawers of bar.
1853 National Era 13 Jan. 7 The prices were fully maintained. Iron was active. Scotch pig had advanced to 74 s. cash.
1866 Reader 8 Sept. 778 The changes which have to be effected in the crude cast-iron, called pig, in order to convert it into malleable or bar-iron.
a1898 H. Bessemer Autobiogr. (1905) xiv. 192 From that pig I had produced steel of excellent quality for all structural purposes.
1959 N. Nicholson Provinc. Pleasures ii. 53 Smelting was so extravagant with ore that some people say there was more iron in the slag than in the pig.
1964 Trans. & Papers (Instit. Brit. Geographers) 34 148 Sheffield reacted to this situation by buying more of its pig from Middlesbrough.
†f. pig of ballast n. Obsolete a pig of iron or (rarely) lead used as ballast; cf. pig ballast n. at Compounds 2c.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > other equipment of vessel > [noun] > ballast
lastage1440
ballast1486
ballasting1508
kentledge1625
water ballast1759
shifting ballast1785
pig of ballast1789
pig ballast1797
sandbag1834
stiffening1894
1789 Trans. Soc. Arts 7 218 Pigs of ballast, to sink the lower part.
1837 F. Marryat Snarleyyow III. xix. 284 Get up a pig of ballast.
1878 Times 31 Aug. 11/2 The drawings do not show the arrangement of the pigs of ballast.
1999 J. Raban Passage to Juneau v. 271 To balance the enormous square-footage of canvas.., he had to line the bilges with 29 pigs of cast-iron ballast.]
†12. slang (originally cant). A sixpence. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > English coins > [noun] > sixpence
tester1560
half-shilling1561
teston1577
mill sixpence1592
crinklepouch1593
sixpencea1616
testrila1616
piga1640
sice1660
Simon1699
sow's-baby1699
kick1725
cripple1785
grunter1785
tilbury1796
tizzy1804
tanner1811
bender1836
lord of the manor1839
snid1839
sprat1839
fiddler1846
sixpenny bit or piece1897
zac1898
sprasey1905
a1640 J. Fletcher et al. Beggers Bush iii. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Ll2/2 Fill till't be six-pence, And there's my pig.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Pig, Sixpence.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Pig, sixpence; a sow's baby.
1799 W. Cobbett Detection Conspiracy by United Irishmen 5 The cant of the pick-pockets, according to which a hog means a shilling, a pig, sixpence, and so on.
1858 A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 255 We've ‘bilked’ (swindled) my nabs out of his ‘pig’ (sixpence).
1871 J. S. Le Fanu Checkmate (2000) 72 You know I han't a pig of his money, and never hurt a hair of his head.
1916 Mod. Philol. 14 43 Pig,..a sixpence, pig's (sow's) baby an English sixpence.
13.
†a. A lump, block, or piece of something; spec. a bundle of hemp fibre weighing approx. 2½ lb (approx. 1.1 kg). Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > additive > salt > [noun] > block or cube of salt
pigc1825
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > flax, hemp, or jute > [noun] > bundle of > of specific measurement or weight
paternoster1659
pigc1860
society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > plants, grasses, or reeds > [noun] > vegetable fibre > hemp > bundle of
bung1717
pigc1860
c1825 J. Choyce Log of Jack Tar (1891) 33 This [rock salt] they cut out into square pigs weighing about sixty pounds which they send to Guacho on mules.
a1843 in R. Southey Common-place Bk. (1851) 4th Ser. 417/1 Your man beat his antagonist by a pig and an apple-pie. [Note] A pig is still a provincial term for an apple puff.
c1860 H. Stuart Novices or Young Seaman's Catech. (rev. ed.) 57 It [sc. hemp] is then weighed into small parcels called ‘pigs’, weighing about 2½ lbs. each.
b. Chiefly British. A segment of a citrus fruit or apple. Cf. peg n.1 11.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > fruit and vegetables > fruit or a fruit > [noun] > parts of fruit
flesh1574
acetary1672
grain1674
peg1817
sarcocarp1819
pig1859
albedo1923
1859 Times 1 Dec. 8/4 Like the ‘pigs’ of a dry orange, unbroken at one pole (so to speak), but irregularly torn off at the other.
1870 F. P. Verney Lettice Lisle vi. 75 ‘What beautiful fruit,’ said he, beginning to eat the ‘pigs’ into which she was cutting it [sc. an apple].
1950 D. Welch Voice through Cloud xxiii. 196 I squeezed my pig of lemon over the sliver of salmon.
1989 P. Farmer Thicker than Water (1991) viii. 112 She peeled the orange with a knife and ate it, pig by pig.
14. In the names of games. (See also pig in the middle n., piggy in the middle n.).
a. pigs in clover n. a game in which a number of small balls must be rolled into a recess or pocket in a board, by tilting the board itself (cf. pig in clover n. at Phrases 10a).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > bagatelle and similar games > [noun]
troll-madam1572
nine holes1573
pigeonholes1608
small trunksc1610
hole1611
trucks1671
roly-poly1707
Mississippi1728
bumble-puppy1794
bubble the justice1801
bagatelle1819
cockamaroo1850
pigs in clover1889
pinball1911
pinball game1911
Skee-Ball1923
Corinthian bagatelle1933
pachinko1949
1889 Bucks County (Pa.) Gaz. 21 Mar. 1/5 ‘Pigs in Clover’ is the latest toy and puzzle, and it is having a great run.
1924 A. Woollcott Enchanted Aisles (ed. 2) 151 Getting them [sc. the three men] together seemed likely to be a game as exasperating as Pigs in Clover.
2002 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 10 Sept. (Bay Area section) a15 ‘Pigs in Clover’, built by Charles Crandall in 1889, dares the player to tip and turn the playing field to induce several balls into a ‘pen’ in the center.
b. In various names for games in which blindfolded players attempt to place the tail or eye on a picture of a pig. Cf. to pin the tail on the donkey at pin v.1 Phrases 2.
ΚΠ
1898 Daily News 3 May 6/2 Those games and pastimes by which the patrons of the Peninsular and Oriental Company are wont to beguile time. Of such are the ‘Game of Buckets’, ‘Playing Bull’, ‘Placing the Pig's Eye’, and the ‘Cigarette Race’.
1903 Daily Chron. 4 Feb. 5/1 ‘Putting on the pig's tail’ is a familiar game on board ship. A tailless pig is drawn in chalk upon the deck. Each passenger is blindfolded, turned round three times, and then proceeds to put the tail on the pig—usually yards away from the animal.
2003 Chicago Sun-Times (Nexis) 28 Feb. (Weekend Plus section) 2 Families can play ‘Pin the Tail on the Pig’ and test their knowledge in a game of ‘Pig-Tac-Toe’.
15.
a. colloquial. Any of various types of vehicle, esp. one that is heavy or awkward to control.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessel of specific construction or shape > [noun] > having specific overall shape
butterbox1840
cigar-ship1869
flat-iron1886
toothpick1897
pig1898
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > motor car > [noun] > car that looks fast but is not
pig1898
society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > locomotive
locomotive engine1814
iron horse1825
locomotive1829
loco1833
railway engine1833
bullgine1848
bull1889
pig1931
locie1934
1898 N. Amer. Rev. June 723 Whalebacks, or ‘pigs’, as the lake sailors call them.
1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 145 Pig—A locomotive.
1967 Evening Standard 26 July 13/3 ‘We'll hop in my pig, catch the rays and have a boss time.’.. The latest in American teenage talk... ‘The pig’ is a car which looks powerful but has a small engine.
2002 Off Licence News (Nexis) 29 Mar. 10 Parked outside the museum is a vintage delivery van affectionately known as the pig because ‘it's a pig to start and a pig to drive’.
b. An unwieldy aeroplane, spec. a torpedo plane.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > aeroplane > [noun] > with more than one wing either side > types of biplane
box kite1904
sesquiplane1921
pig1942
1942 F. R. Meyer Fighting Talk Pig, Torpedo plane.
1946 Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. 50 85 He had made no great contribution publicly to aeronautical science, but the fact that he had taken the first ‘pig’ (the name sometimes applied to early biplanes—Ed.) into the air.
2003 Australian (Nexis) 6 Aug. (Features section) 9 This is the contemporary reputation of the F-111, fondly nicknamed ‘pigs’, the go anywhere, all-purpose, supersonic fighter bomber.
c. Military. An armoured personnel carrier or combat vehicle; spec. (British) a Humber 1-ton armoured personnel carrier.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > military vehicles > [noun] > armed or armoured > armoured personnel carrier
personnel car1914
troop-carrier1923
personnel carrier1937
pig1964
1964 Times 16 Jan. 10/3 British troops in Cyprus were alerted today to look for a one-ton vehicle, an ‘armoured pig’, or troop carrier, stolen from a British base at Dhekelia.
1973 W. T. Huggett Body Count 125 We will send six-bys with a pig escort... Pigs! Code slang meaning they were sending an ONTOS to escort the trucks.
2004 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 13 Feb. 10 As the mortar platoon left their ‘Pig’ armoured vehicles, more than a dozen soldiers said they came under fire.
16. A device that fits inside an oil or gas pipeline and can be sent through it to clean or inspect the inside, or to act as a barrier between fluids either side of it.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > oil and natural gas recovery equipment > [noun] > pipe-line > devices for laying or clearing
go-devil1885
scraper1897
pig1949
rabbit1949
laybarge1956
1949 Amer. Speech 24 33 A few field workers apply the term [sc. ‘rabbit’] to scrapers used in pipelines to remove paraffin, but the most common name for this device is pig, because of the grunting noise it makes as it is forced through the line.
1970 W. G. Roberts Quest for Oil xii. 126 (caption) Plastic pig used to clean a 30-inch diameter pipeline in Libya.
1990 New Scientist 5 May 3 (advt.) It takes a special kind of pig to travel hundreds of kilometres along the sea bed.

Phrases

†P1. when the pig is offered (also proffered), hold open the poke and variants: one must seize one's opportunities. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > an opportunity > have opportunity [verb (intransitive)] > take opportunity
when the pig is offered (also proffered), hold open the pokea1325
to strike while (also when) the iron is hotc1405
to take occasion1561
to take one's chance1791
a1325 (c1250) Prov. Hendyng (Cambr.) xxxvi, in Anglia (1881) 4 188–9 (MED) Wan man ȝevit þe a pig[v.r. gris], opin þe powch.
c1450 MS Douce 52 in Festschrift zum XII. Neuphilologentage (1906) 54 When me profereth þe pigge, opon þe pogh, For when he is an olde swyn, thow tyte hym nowȝt.
a1550 in R. Dyboski Songs, Carols & Other Misc. Poems (1908) 128 Whan I profir the pig, opin the poke.
1579 U. Fulwell Ars Adulandi (new ed.) vi When Pig is proferd, ope the poke, my Nurse taught me that tricke.
1616 Withals' Dict. 579 Quod datur accipe, when the pig is offered, hold ope the poake.
1702 Libamina Junioribus Philologis Degustanda 38 When the pig is offered hold out the pock.
1751 L. Chambaud Idioms French & Eng. Langs. 253/1 When the pig's offered, hold up the pole [sic].
†P2. to have a pig in (also of) the worse pannier: to be in a worse plight. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
1533 J. Heywood Mery Play Iohan Iohan sig. B.ivv And peraduenture, there he and she Wyll make me cokold, euyn to anger me And then had I a pyg, in the woyrs panyer.
1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue ii. xi. sig. Lv Who that hath either of these pygs in vre, He hath a pygge of the worse panier sure.
†P3.
a pig of a person's sow n. (also a pig of a person's own sow) Obsolete part of a person's property. Esp. in to give a person a pig of his (her, etc.) own sow: to give a person something which already belongs to them; to pay a person back with his or her own property; (also) to treat a person as he or she has treated others.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > reciprocal treatment or return of an action > treat one as he has been treated [verb (transitive)]
to give a person a pig of his (her, etc.) own sowc1525
to pay any one in his own coina1618
the mind > possession > giving > give [verb (transitive)] > give one part of one's own or another's property
to give a person a pig of his (her, etc.) own sowc1525
c1525 J. Rastell Of Gentylnes & Nobylyte sig. Aiv That is euyn a pyg of our own sow.
1553 tr. S. Gardiner De Vera Obediencia: Oration G iij I thought it not mete..to make men thinke I had geuen them a pigge of another mannes sowe.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Chemise To giue one a pig of his owne sow; to affoord him helpe out of his owne meanes.
1671 R. Head & F. Kirkman Eng. Rogue III. 90 My Husband finding that the purchase he took from the Thieves was but a Pig of his own Sow, his own money.
1731 H. Fielding Grub-St. Opera iii. xiv. 53 If you come to my house I will treat you With a pig of your own sow.
1860 C. Reade Cloister & Hearth xcviii ‘Who more charitable than monks?’ ‘Go to! They do but give the laity back a pig of their own sow.’
P4.
pig in a poke (also bag) n. (and variants) [see also poke n.1 1a] something bought or accepted without prior inspection; esp. in to buy (also sell) a pig in a poke.
ΚΠ
?a1325 (c1250) Prov. Hendyng (Cambr.) xxxvi, in Anglia (1881) 4 189 Wan man ȝevit þe a pig, opin þe powch.]
1555 J. Heywood Two Hundred Epigrammes with Thyrde sig. B.iiv I wyll neuer bye the pyg in the poke.
1583 R. Greene Mamillia f. 34 He is a foole, they say, that will buy ye pig in the poke: or wed a wife without trial.
1679 G. Rose tr. P. Boaistuau Theatre of World 201 Buying, as they say, a Pig in a Bag.
1692 C. Gildon Post-boy rob'd of his Mail I. cviii. 300 Have a care of Buying a Pig in a Poke.
1718 W. Taverner Artful Wife iii. 31 I've consider'd the Articles of Agreement, and don't very well like 'em. Let me see: For Better for Worse,—that's buying a Pig in a Poke.
1770 C. Jenner Placid Man II. vi. ii. 184 Possibly neither of us may absolutely like to buy a pig in a poke.
1830 G. Flagg Let. 2 Aug. in Flagg Corr. (1986) 41 It would be buying a pig in a poke to buy land in the Bounty tract without seeing it.
1860 T. P. Thompson Audi Alteram Partem (1861) III. cxxxvi. 108 The reason the parliamentary jobber hates the Ballot, is because he does not like buying a pig in a poke.
1932 J. J. Hardie Cattle Camp (1944) 270 Best pair of legs I've ever seen! Great idea, these short skirts. No more buying a pig in a poke!
1965 P. Bradford Born with Blues 115 I know what the results will be and Columbia won't be buying a ‘pig in the bag’.
1995 Inside Fort Collins 30 Mar. 2/1 But let's first thoroughly examine whether we can meet that demand..before rushing to purchase a pricey potential pig-in-the-poke.
P5.
†a. pigs fly with their tails forward and variants: perhaps used to mock credulity in others. Obsolete (rare after 17th cent.).
ΚΠ
1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius iii. 485v This is a great promise, my good Lord: But when will this be done? when pigges flye with their tayles foreward.
1616 J. Withal Dict. Eng. & Lat. (enlarged ed.) 583 Pigs fly in the ayre with their tayles forward.
1639 J. Clarke Paroemiologia 147/1 Pigs fly in the aire with their tailes forward.
1670 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Prov. 189 Pigs fly in the air with their tails forward.
1880 C. H. Spurgeon John Ploughman's Pictures 32 They say that if pigs fly they always go with their tails forward.
b. pigs might fly, pigs have wings and variants: used to indicate incredulity or impossibility, or to mock credulity in others.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > impossibility > desire the impossible [phrase] > absence of possibility
you won't catch me1698
not a cat (in hell)'s chance1796
pigs might fly1840
there is (also was, etc.) no way (that)1908
not a hope (also chance) in hell1923
it's (just) not on1935
pigs have wings1936
that'll (also that will) be the day1941
not on your Nelly1959
1732 T. Fuller Gnomologia 186 That is as likely as to see an Hog fly.]
1840 New Monthly Belle Assemblée June 305/1 Pigs might fly, but I'll defy any-one to edit a hat-box?
1865 ‘L. Carroll’ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ix. 135 ‘I've a right to think,’ said Alice sharply... ‘Just about as much right,’ said the Duchess, ‘as pigs have to fly.’
a1871 A. De Morgan Budget of Paradoxes (1872) 275 There is a proverb which says, A pig may fly, but it isn't a likely bird.
1889 Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago) 3 Mar. 4 Pigs will fly when there are enough offices to fill the popular demand.
1936 Times 27 June 15/6 Surely when frogs eat strawberries, pigs have wings!
2004 Evening Post (Nottingham) (Nexis) 26 June 32 I am quite sure that, when the chief executive of the hospital trust reads this, a cheque will be in the post. Then again, pigs might fly.
P6. to bring (also carry, drive, etc.) one's pigs to market: to try to do business or get results; to succeed in realizing one's potential. to bring one's pigs to a fine market (chiefly ironic): to be disappointed or unsuccessful in a venture. Cf. market n. 1d.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > failure or lack of success > fail or be unsuccessful [verb (intransitive)] > specifically of persons > in an undertaking
to bring one's eggs (also hogs) to a fair (also bad, etc.) market1600
to be squeezed through a horn1605
to bring one's pigs to a fine marketa1643
to go badly to market1812
the world > action or operation > endeavour > make an attempt or endeavour [verb (intransitive)]
fanda1225
procurea1325
assay1370
workc1384
to put oneself in pressc1390
purchasec1400
buskc1450
study1483
fend15..
try1534
enterprise1547
to make an attempt?c1550
to give the venture1589
prove1612
nixuriate1623
to lay out1659
essay1715
to bring (also carry, drive, etc.) one's pigs to market1771
to have (or take or give) a crack1836
to make an out1843
to go to market1870
to give it a burl1917
to have a bash (at)1950
a1643 W. Cartwright Ordinary (1651) iv. iii. 64 'Tis one that brought his Pigs to the wrong market.
1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. xlv. 367 I have fished fair now..and brought my Pigs to a fine Market.
1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random I. xv. 113 Strap..observed, that we had brought our pigs to a fine market.
1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker I. 164 Roger may carry his pigs to another market.
1865 A. Trollope Can you forgive Her? II. xxii. 169 It is you that ought to be Chancellor of the Exchequer; you are so wise. Only you haven't brought your own pigs to the best market.
1873 Punch 21 June 262/2 Government finds that in producing the competition Wallah, it has driven its pigs to a pretty market.
1972 Advocate News (Barbados) 7 July 4 Post-war socialism..has now brought its pigs to a fine market and the chickens have come home to roost.
1999 Los Angeles Mag. (Nexis) 1 Mar. 118 Universal failed to bring this pig to market and wins the prize for Worst Ad Campaign.
†P7. Proverbial phrase to stare like a (dead) pig. Cf. to stare like a stuck pig: see stuck adj.2 1. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1667 R. Flecknoe Damoiselles a la Mode ii. vi. 21 I've made him stare like a Pig!
1694 P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 5th Bk. Wks. ix. 41 Panurge star'd at him like a dead Pig.
1825 Universal Songster I. 145/1 So I opened the door, and I stared like a pig, There stood old Father Murphy, without hat or wig.
P8. Chiefly British. please the pigs: if circumstances permit; if all is well. Now rare. [Origin unknown. Some have suggested a corruption of either pyx n.1 or of pixies , plural of pixie n., but without any supporting historical evidence.]
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > possibility > subject to outside forces [phrase]
if (also and) God willc1300
will God1488
please the pigs1683
Deo volente1767
inshallah1857
1683 J. Norris Murnival of Knaves 17 Nay he shall be, and't please the Pigs The Anti-Yorkist of the Whigs, Or else be Canoniz'd by me The Whigs little St. Anthony.
a1704 T. Brown Lett. from Dead (new ed.) in Wks. (1707) II. ii. ii. 92 I'll have one of the Wiggs to carry into the Country with me an't [printed and] please the Pigs.
1793 M. Pilkington Rosina IV. i. 20 Please the pigs, I'll be with him before cock-crow!
1825 T. Hook Sayings & Doings 2nd Ser. I. 183 I know what I will do, and that is, please the Pix, I'll marry Louisa to her cousin George.
1891 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 819/1 There I'll be, please the pigs, on Thursday night.
1963 Times 11 Mar. 1/7 You may have heard someone say—‘Please the pigs, I'll come on Tuesday’. They mean, of course, if circumstances permit—Deo volente.
P9. to have (also take, catch) the wrong pig by the ear (also tail): to take an incorrect view; to arrive at the wrong conclusion, solution, etc.; to be mistaken. Cf. sow n.1 3a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > misinterpretation > misunderstand [phrase]
to take amissa1425
to walk wide in words1529
to have (also take, catch) the wrong pig by the ear (also tail)1536
to be out of the story1649
to be at cross-purposes1688
I beg your pardon1806
to lose track of1894
to get (someone) wrong1927
to speak past ——1952
to lose the thread1956
1536 J. Husee Let. 13 May in State Papers Henry VIII (P.R.O.: SP 1/103) f. 281 I fere me that I haue takyn a wrong pigg by the ere.
1611 G. H. tr. Anti-Coton i. 23 The Iesuite then, and Cardinall Bellarmine, take the wrong Pigge by the eare, in labouring to iustifie Garnet and Oldcorne.
1761 Brit. Mag. 2 440 You'd have sworn he had got the wrong pig by the ear.
1793 Amer. Mercury 14 Jan. 2/1 Congress shall know it, and from me shall hear That they have caught the wrong pig by the ear.
1839 Times 5 Oct. 6/4 But you have got the wrong pig by the ear; that was a Mr. George Nash, and not this claimant.
1898 E. N. Westcott David Harum xxiii. 213 I hain't ben runnin' the Eagle tavern fer quite a consid'able while. You got the wrong pig by the ear as usual.
1933 Times 7 Mar. 15/6 Mr. Maxton..seems, if one may say so, to have got the wrong pig by the tail.
1997 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 28 July 11 We may just have the wrong pig by the ear.
P10.
a.
pig in clover n. (the type of) a comfortable, privileged, or contented person, esp. one who conspicuously enjoys wealth, food, etc. Esp. in to live like a pig in clover: to live the high life, to indulge oneself. Cf. pigs in clover n. at sense 14a.
ΚΠ
1795 in L. Hopkins et al. Echo (1807) 218 Four weeks they liv'd like pigs in clover, At length the feasting moon was over.
1813 Boston Gaz. 7 Jan. in R. H. Thornton Amer. Gloss. (1912) 664 Canadians! then in droves come over, And live henceforth like pigs in clover.
1852 J. W. Redfield Compar. Physiognomy 182 You may see, from the knowing expression of his eye, that he is ‘a pig in clover’.
1925 D. H. Lawrence St. Mawr 161 I don't think I should ever have made my final announcement to Rico, if he hadn't been such a beautiful pig in clover.
2000 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 13 Aug. (Book Review section) 2 A bookish little pig in clover, I sampled everything on his shelves.
b. colloquial (originally English regional (northern)). (as) happy as a pig in muck (also shit, etc.): very happy, extremely content.
ΚΠ
1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) (at cited word) ‘As happy as a pig in muck’, signifying that an indolent person is contented in any abject state of filthiness.
1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. at Muck ‘As happy as pigs in muck’, means having your fill of sensual pleasure.
1880 S. Lover Barney the Baron ii. 7 To be sure I am, happy as a pig in a puddle.
1953 D. Thomas Let. 22 June (1987) 901 I am sorry to add to this that by the end of the day I was happy as a pig in shit myself.
2003 Sunday Tel. (Sydney) (Nexis) 16 Nov. 54 I feel as happy as a pig in mud.
†P11. colloquial. the pigs have run through (something): (something) has been completely ruined or thrown into disarray. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
1808 W. Scott Let. 23 Dec. (1932) II. 139 I believe.., that when he [sc. Sir A. Wellesley] found himself superseded, he suffered the pigs to run through the business.
1845 J. W. Carlyle Let. to T. Carlyle in New Lett. 20 Aug. I ‘did intend’ that you should have had plenty of Letter to-day, but the pigs have run through it—and be hanged to them.
P12. colloquial. to drive pigs (to market): to snore.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > respiratory organs > breathing > audible breathing > [verb (intransitive)] > snore
routeOE
snortc1386
snorec1440
snork?1537
snotter1710
snortle1807
blurta1825
to drive pigs (to market)1828
1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) (at cited word) ‘To drive pigs’, to snore.
1858 Times 27 Aug. 7/6 The only sound heard being that of such of the sleepers as ‘drive their pigs to market’ o' nights.
1903 S. Hedin Central Asia II. 318 The sleeping men..went on driving their pigs to market for all they were worth.
1998 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman (Nexis) 28 Nov. c1 Pig references abound in our culture. For example: To drive pigs—to snore.
P13. colloquial (chiefly North American and Australian). (in a) pig's eye (also ear, arse): used as a derisive retort expressing emphatic disbelief, rejection, or denial.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > contempt or disesteem [phrase] > expressions of contempt
a straw forc1374
to blow the buck's hornc1405
to go whistle1453
fig's enda1616
to do the other thing1628
indeed1834
(in a) pig's eye (also ear, arse)1847
drop dead1934
the mind > language > statement > denial or contradiction > [noun] > expression or formula of
(in a) pig's eye (also ear, arse)1847
nossir1930
1847 J. J. Oswandel Notes Mexican War (1885) iii. 163 Mr. Nicholas P. Trist..is on his way to negotiate with the Mexican government to make peace. How are you peace—peace in a pig's eye.
1876 Oakland (Calif.) Daily Evening Tribune 17 Mar. ‘Bought this mare for $16..’. ‘In a pig's eye you've bought her for $16’.
1951 E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 322 ‘Pig's arse to that!’ another voice cried. ‘A jack-up—that's the shot.’
1968 W. Garner Deep, Deep Freeze ix. 110 ‘One stops short of probing the private lives of people for whom one has a regard.’ ‘In a pig's ear!’ she said vulgarly. ‘If duty called you'd have a man under the bed on my honeymoon.’
1992 O. S. Card Lost Boys (1993) vi. 154 ‘She must not have any idea of the effect of her words then’... ‘In a pig's eye.’
P14.
pig on pork n. (also pig on bacon) Business slang (chiefly British) income or credit generated by drawing or borrowing money from a branch or subsidiary of one's own firm, or from a firm with which one is intimately connected, so that drawer and drawee are effectively one and the same; esp. in to draw pig on (also upon) pork. Also: the practice of generating income in this way; an accommodation bill drawn in this way.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > types of money-dealing > [verb (intransitive)] > use bills of exchange
redraw1697
to fly a kite1808
shave1832
to draw pig on (also upon) pork1846
to fly a bill1861
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > paper money > promissory notes or bills of exchange > [noun] > drawn by a house on itself
pig on pork1846
house bill1909
1846 Times 30 Nov. 3/1 Intermediate bills of the kind in dispute are subject to the laws which govern all other bills... In Yorkshire among the clothiers of the West Riding they bear the not very elegant title of ‘Pig upon Bacon’.
1872 Porcupine 16 Nov. 515/2 In Liverpool..issuing a bill on their London branch establishment..in commercial phraseology, is termed drawing ‘pig upon bacon’.
1920 A. C. Pigou Econ. of Welfare ii. v. 144 The variety of accommodation bills known as ‘pig-on-bacon’, where the acceptor is a branch of the drawing house under an alias, is..different.
1956 C. R. Fay Adam Smith & Scotl. his Day v. 70 There was also what the city came to call pig on pork—Edinburgh drawing on London, London on Edinburgh.
1998 Financial Times (Nexis) 28 Nov. 7 The technique used to generate that income, known to insiders as ‘pig on pork’, remains highly controversial.
P15. colloquial. couldn't stop a pig in a passage (also alley, ginnel, etc.) and variants: said of a bow-legged person.
ΚΠ
1840 Age 13 Dec. 398/2 Roderigo was entrusted to a youth, whose legs were wide asunder, like the poles, or as a gallery wit tritely observed, a rum customer ‘to stop a pig’.]
1860 Once a Week 21 Jan. 77/1 Of his legs I have only to say, that he was the very last person whom you would have selected to stop a pig in a gate, for the obvious reason that the animal in question would most undoubtedly have run between them.
1882 W. Westall Red Ryvington (1885) xxx. 161 ‘He couldn't stop a pig in a ginnel [entry], not to save his life, he couldn't.’ (John's legs were just a little bowed.)
1963 Times 13 Apr. 3/1 Hunt..has the same sort of Welsh stand-off look as his opposite number, short and with legs not designed to stop a pig in a street.
1991 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 16 Apr. (Everyday Mag. section) 3 Some range rider so bowlegged that he couldn't stop a pig in a two-foot alley.
2012 K. Flynn Christmas to Remember 111 Tess had heard Adam described as ‘a fellow who couldn't stop a pig in a passage’... For Adam was bowlegged.
P16. [Probably after Irish ar muin na muice, ar mhuin na muice well off, in luck, lit. ‘on the pig's back’ (second half of the 17th cent.).] Chiefly Irish English, New Zealand, and Australian. on the pig's back (also ear): in a fortunate or prosperous state.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > prosperity > in prosperous condition [phrase] > at height of
in one's flower(sc1380
on the pig's back (also ear)1894
on top of the worldc1920
1894 J. W. Whitbread Lord Edward in C. Herr Land they Loved (1991) 145 Begorra he's on the pig's back this time.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. viii. [Lestrygonians] 172 That'll be two pounds ten... Three Hynes owes me... Five guineas about. On the pig's back.
1946 C. Mann in Coast to Coast 1945 27 We always were lucky. He's home on the pig's ear.
1995 E. Toman Dancing in Limbo vi. 148 His tone suddenly tetchy at the image of the Kerry nuns living on the pig's back.
P17. Australian. pigs to you: used as a derisive retort.Quot. 1957 may be an elliptical form of this phrase, or may derive from one of the phrases in Phrases 13.
ΚΠ
1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands i. 5 ‘Pigs to you!’ said Benno, with incredible scorn.
1933 N. Lindsay Saturdee ix. 165 Peter had to cover his confusion by saying ‘Pigs to you’ as he went out kicking the door.
1957 ‘N. Culotta’ They're Weird Mob (1958) iv. 47 ‘She's worn out.’ ‘Pigs she is. There's a lot of life in 'er yet.’
1975 L. Ryan Shearers 119 ‘Ar, pigs to you!’ ‘In your dinger, too!’
P18.
pig in the python n. (and variants) figurative (originally and chiefly U.S.). those people born (esp. in the United States) during the ‘baby boom’ of the years immediately following the Second World War (1939–45), considered as a demographic bulge; (hence) any short-term increase or notably large group, viewed statistically.
ΚΠ
1971 N.Y. Times 6 Nov. 17/1 On a graph of the entire population by age, this group [sc. the baby boomers] sticks out like the python's dinner.]
1974 N.Y. Times 21 Apr. iv. 6/3 (headline) Pigs in a python... All very well for the bulge group you may say.
1988 Newsday (Nexis) 28 Feb. 11 In demographic terms, the college-educated baby boomers constitute a huge ‘pig in a python’—their bulk can be seen moving slowly, slowly through history.
1997 Automotive News (Nexis) 22 Sept. 11 The leasing boom of the early 1990s was expected to be a ‘pig in the python’.
2003 Lewiston (Idaho) Morning Tribune (Nexis) 6 Dec. 12 a The pig-in-the-python of music sales: young people earning minimum wage or not much more.

Compounds

C1.
a. General attributive.
pig belly n.
ΚΠ
a1640 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Spanish Curat ii. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. E3/2 No man would think a stranger as I am Should reap any great commodity from his pigbelly.
1925 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 38 278 You take out pig belly, clean it, grate potatoes and put in, cook in a pot with water.
2001 Independent (Nexis) 14 July (Features section) 16 In the jumbled lexicography of my mind, ‘petit sale’ was a ‘dirty little piece of pig’, instead of a tasty morsel of preserved pig belly.
† pig-broth n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre Induct. sig. A6 in Wks. II The language some where sauours of Smithfield, the Booth, and the Pig-broath, or of prophanenesse.
pig-byre n.
ΚΠ
1906 19th Cent. June 967 Already half the cottage pig-byres stand empty in our lanes.
2001 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 4 Aug. (Travel section) 1 A stone farmhouse or a converted pig-byre.
pig farm n.
ΚΠ
1817 Times 17 Nov. 1/5 Well-enclosed yards, with sheds and stabling, at the Pig-Farm, Carshalton, Surrey.
1999 J. Vidal in G. Tansey & J. D'Silva Meat Business v. 57 How can a small hog breeder compete with the biggest pig farm in the world?
pig hutch n.
ΚΠ
1839 T. Carlyle Chartism iv. 28 He lodges to his mind in any pighutch or doghutch.
1994 Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Nexis) 1 July 1 b They had planned to use profit earned on the pigs this year to build a pig hutch.
pig life n.
ΚΠ
1857 Times 16 July 10/4 Human life is simply pig life glazed and staircased.
1902 Westm. Gaz. 21 Jan. 3/1 The results seem to substantiate the claims of the Professor to have discovered a serum that will leave its mark on pig-life.
1993 J. Meades Pompey (1994) 277 It lived its pig life..in a shared sty fashioned from reinforced concrete outfall pipe.
pig manure n.
ΚΠ
1848 Times 17 Nov. 4/2 The merits of peat charcoal as a deodorizer..on the three most offensive matters, viz.:—night soil, stable manure, and pig manure.
1917 Gaz. & Bull. (Williamsport, Pa.) 5 June 6/2 In view of the scarcity of horse, cow and pig manure..the home gardener who can secure a supply of poultry manure cannot afford to overlook its value.
1991 R. Anderson Paper Faces x. 54 All they need is a warm corner,..careful feeding—that's splendid pig manure we put in—and plenty of interest. Then they grow and grow.
pig pail n.
ΚΠ
1871 Times 19 Oct. 11/3 There was often milk over..and it was put into the pig pail.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 18 Jan. 2/3 The cricket climbed the side of the..pig-pail.
1970 R. Pearce Stages of Clown (1971) ix. 147 He was dumped into a pig pail with a ‘stew’ of flies and beetles.
pig trade n.
ΚΠ
1852 G. Dodd in Househ. Words 31 July 474/1 The Cincinnati pig-trade began about 1835.
1908 Times 16 Mar. 4/4 The activity in the foreign pig trade continues.
1991 Animals' Agenda Mar. 12/2 Testimony regarding the aesthetic appeal of pigotry is furnished by Kiyoko Hancock, a former educator now in the pig trade.
pig yard n.
ΚΠ
1797 Communications to Board of Agric. I. ii. vi. 87 A garden should not be less than a rood, exclusive of the pig-yard.
1874 Appletons' Jrnl. 1 Aug. 147 Thick flakes of snow were falling so fast that the pig-yard was already whitened.
2003 Weekend Austral. (Nexis) 7 Dec. b2 There had been a pig yard on the property years earlier.
b. Objective.
pig breeder n.
ΚΠ
1796 J. Lawrence Philos. & Pract. Treat. Horses I. 37 What pig-breeder but must smile at the directions of Mr. Mills, to cut pigs at six months old.
1886 T. Hardy Mayor of Casterbridge I. xxii. 292 There's Benjamin Brownlet—a horse-dealer; and Kitson, the pig-breeder.
2000 Isis 91 368/1 Ritvo has pored over the chronicles of Victorian agriculturists and animal breeders, including..pig breeders' pamphlets.
pig-breeding n.
ΚΠ
1798 J. Lawrence Philos. & Pract. Treat. Horses II. 124 The excessive price has set all those in the country who had convenience, to pig-breeding.
1889 Morning Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) 2 Feb. 6/3 This kind of argument controlled my pig breeding for years.
1992 Economist 9 May 134/2 (advt.) Marketable crop growing, forage crop growing, dairy cattle, pig-breeding.
pig butcher n.
ΚΠ
1774 T. Rundell Let. 12 Sept. in Plans & Rep. Royal Humane Soc. (1775) 34 I was called to a lad about nine years old, son of Mr. Syms, pig-butcher, in Queen-Street.
1824 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 378 He applies a pig-butcher's knife to the jugular vein.
1998 Boundary 2 25 74 In this novella, a woman is forced to have sex with her husband, a pig butcher, in exchange for food.
pig buyer n.
ΚΠ
1857 Chambers's Information for People (new ed.) I. 626/1 The intending pig-buyer will find his account in attending to them.
1927 Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent 25 June 2/4 Between 15 and 20 pig buyers from southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois attended.
2001 Farmers Guardian (Nexis) 22 June 8 Pig buyers have argued that they are at the mercy of the exchange rate.
pig dealer n.
ΚΠ
1731 in E. Cheyne & D. M. Barratt Probate Rec. of Courts of Bishop & Archdeacon Oxf. (1981) i. 57 Blackwell, John, pig dealer, Finstock, Charlbury.
1843 Penny Mag. 22 July 278/1 Mr. Thomas Fleetwood, pig-dealer.
1993 F. Singleton Short Hist. Yugoslav Peoples (BNC) 76 A pig dealer..who was later to lead the Serbian revolt of 1804.
pig dealing n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 359/2 I also entered into the pig-dealing line.
1917 H. W. V. Temperley Hist. Serbia x. 180 Kara George was called from the homely occupation of pig-dealing to head a revolution of a more savage type.
2001 Financial Times (Nexis) 17 Mar. 3 When the crisis was all over he hoped he might return, if not to farming, then to pig dealing.
† pig-dresser n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot ii. v. 57 Like Bartholemew Faire pig-dressers.
pig-driver n.
ΚΠ
1687 London Gaz. No. 2234/4 John Williams a Welshman, a Pig driver.
1756 Life & Mem. E. T. Bates 117 No Gentleman can be pleased to be interrupted by ev'ry Crayman or Pig-driver.
1839 C. Darwin in R. Fitzroy & C. Darwin Narr. Surv. Voy. H.M.S. Adventure & Beagle III. xvi. 360 The stroke-oar..uttered strange cries, much after the fashion of a pig-driver when driving his pigs.
1960 J. Barth Sot-weed Factor iii. v. 564 We thought her but a scurfy wench of a pig-driver!
pig-driving n.
ΚΠ
1838 R. S. Surtees Jorrocks's Jaunts 298 Mr. Jorrocks..stuck the pig-driving whip into the socket.
1996 Guardian (Nexis) 13 Nov. (Society page) 1 A Banbury man is offering pig-driving courses for executives suffering from stress.
pig-eater n.
ΚΠ
1608 T. Middleton Trick to catch Old-one iv. sig. E4v Conuay my little Pig-eater out.
1793 One Pennyworth of Pig's Meat I. 267 (heading) Lessons for pig eaters.
1895 J. Conrad Almayer's Folly xii. 270 Bulangi, who is a thief and a pig-eater, gave her to me for fifty dollars.
2000 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 8 Dec. 10 Despite being staunchly secular—he describes himself as a ‘pig-eater’—Steinitz insists that Israel must preserve its Jewish identity.
pig eating n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1618 N. Assheton Jrnl. (1848) 101 To a pigg eating at Newlands.
1855 Times 6 Oct. 10/5 To drink out of a tumbler, possibly fresh from pig-eating lips, would have entailed a certain loss of reputation.
1954 I. Cunnison tr. M. Mauss Gift ii. 18 The same taboo..exists between young people of both sexes who have passed through the turtle and pig-eating ceremonies together.
2002 Asian Perspectives (Nexis) 39 43 The abandonment of pig eating at this site may coincide with its depopulation after the 1621 conquest.
pig farmer n.
ΚΠ
1888 Hornellsville (N.Y.) Weekly Tribune 28 Dec. 1/6 Another New Orleans woman..has become a pig farmer.
1921 Times 11 May 4/7 M. Gibson and A. H. Klynes, poultry and pig farmers.
2001 Farmers Guardian 17 Aug. 36/2 The ongoers' scheme to help pig farmers who want to stay in the industry, but need short-term financial aid.
pig-farming n.
ΚΠ
1877 Times 16 Nov. 12/4 Mr. Joseph Darby will contribute a paper on Pig Farming and Pork Production.
1989 S. G. Hall & J. Clutton-Brock 200 Years Brit. Farm Livestock xvii. 206 There are few records of the beginnings of recognizably modern pig-farming.
pig feeding n.
ΚΠ
?1800 J. Lidwill Hist. & Mem. 25 If generally practised, the profits [from keeping sheep] would be found so proportionably great, that pig-feeding would be totally omitted.
1901 M. Franklin My Brilliant Career 17 They do all the milkin', and pig-feedin' and poddy-rarin'.
2003 Farmers Guardian (Nexis) 23 May 71 The new national standards for pig feeding.
pig-keeper n.
ΚΠ
1844 Times 5 Dec. 8/3 Pig-keepers are quite unable to keep pace with the rise in price.
1906 Westm. Gaz. 20 Aug. 10/1 The fact, too, that acorns are a heavy crop will gladden the hearts of pig-keepers.
1996 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 2 19 They are numerically small and often socially isolated and impoverished; for example the Handi Jogi pig-keepers of Mysore.
pig-keeping n.
ΚΠ
1828 Times 30 June 5/3 A surgeon of Hounslow proved that the smell arising from the pig-keeping and slaughtering was very prejudicial to the health of the inhabitants.
1896 W. J. Malden (title) Pig Keeping for Profit.
2004 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 21 Aug. 5 He took to pig-keeping in middle age and named his sows after his sisters.
pig killer n.
ΚΠ
1781 Bristol Poll-bk. 39 Punter Thomas pig-killer.
1873 T. Hardy Pair of Blue Eyes II. x. 220 Robert Lickpan, pig-killer and carrier, arrived at this moment.
2002 Coventry Evening Tel. (Nexis) 15 June 27 The bearded gent was Bill's grandfather, Henry Robbins, the village pig killer.
pig merchant n.
ΚΠ
1783 Let. to Mr. Debrett 21 A pig-merchant in the Borough of Southwark.
1832 M. Scott Tom Cringle's Log in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 31 906 I was fairly checked down on my back, just as you may have seen a pig-merchant on the Fermoy road bring an uproarious boar to his marrowbones.
1993 Compar. Stud. Society & Hist. 35 228 A trade association in Shanghai which served the needs of Subei wine and pig merchants during the late Qing.
† pig-netter n. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1923 Blackwood's Mag. Dec. 768/1 They concocted a plan by which the boar should be netted... Professional pig-netters were summoned.
pig rearing n.
ΚΠ
1855 J. C. Smith Harper's Statist. Gazetteer World 545/1 Cattle, sheep, and pig rearing forms an important branch of rural industry.
1907 Westm. Gaz. 31 July 12/2 Pig-rearing..is on the downward grade.
1995 Private Eye 8 Sept. 12/3 Over the last 40 years cattle and pig rearing has all but disappeared.
pig-stalker n. rare
ΚΠ
1908 Westm. Gaz. 2 Mar. 5/2 ‘The indiscriminate offer of rewards in no way tends to the destruction of the real man-eater,’ says Mr. Rees, ‘while it ensures the extermination of the useful..deer and pig stalker.’
2017 T. Bentinck Being David Archer 177 ‘I love your hat’,..‘Thank you, it was my father's.’ ‘Deer-stalker?’ ‘No, pig-stalker, he used to stalk pigs.’
pig-stalking n.
ΚΠ
1867 M. A. Barker Let. Jan. in Station Life N.Z. (1870) xv. 109 We go over the hills pig-stalking.
1947 L. Bryson Sci. & Freedom 111 My own behavior in search of food is..much ‘sophisticated’ when compared with the pig-stalking of my Cro-Magnon ancestors.
pig-stealer n.
ΚΠ
1825 J. K. Paulding John Bull in Amer. xi. 126 When he had done, he solemnly assured me..that his honour was the most noted pig-stealer in the place.
1933 Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune 26 Jan. 10/1 The federal government couldn't prosecute pig stealers.
2000 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 25 June a14 By the time the pig-stealer reached the bridge, he was tired.
c. Instrumental.
pig-haunted adj.
ΚΠ
1902 C. G. Harper Cambridge, Ely & King's Lynn Road vii. 232 A pig-haunted yard rich in straw and mud.
2001 Post & Courier (Charleston, S. Carolina) (Nexis) 25 Nov. 1 b From the remote, wild pig-haunted Wambaw Creek to the cypress islands on Lake Marion.
pig-ploughed adj.
ΚΠ
1921 H. Guthrie-Smith Tutira xix. 165 These pig-ploughed shreds [of land].
1996 Countryside & Small Stock Jrnl. (Nexis) Mar. 46 When the cleared area is large enough for comfortable turning, we'll till, mixing the pig-plowed and fertilized soil in deeper and level it off again.
d. Parasynthetic.
† pig-backed adj. Obsolete
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > trunk > back > [adjective] > types of
straight-backed14..
lute-backed1601
hog-backed1611
broad-backed1651
pig-backed1716
humpbacked1762
mackerel-backed1785
1716 London Gaz. No. 5395/4 One gray Nagg..somewhat Pigg-backed.
1841 C. Otway Sketches in Erris & Tyrawly 340 Vulgar, pig-backed ranges of the north Erris mountains.
1880 Daily News 17 Sept. 16/2 The latter animal [sc. a goat] is slightly pig-backed.
pig-chested adj. now rare
ΚΠ
1895 Rev. of Reviews Aug. 162 Theodore Roosevelt..was..a sickly boy, ‘pig-chested’, very delicate.
1910 Indianapolis Sunday Star 8 May ‘When a boy I was pig-chested and asthmatic’, Roosevelt says of himself.
1957 A. Stoutenburg In this Corner ii. 32 ‘Why, they hardly expected him even to live! He had asthma, for one thing, and he was pig-chested.’ ‘Big-chested?’..‘Pig-chested. That's what Mom says.’
pig-haired adj.
ΚΠ
1608 T. Middleton Trick to catch Old-one iv. p. xiv Farewell and be hangd, you short-pig-hayrde Ram-headed raskalls.
a1652 R. Brome New Acad. i. i. 5 in Five New Playes (1659) Who payes your Barber? I mean not for your Prentice pig-hair'd cut Your weare at home here; but your Periwigs.
1906 N.E.D. at Pig Pig-haired.
1989 Guardian (Nexis) 2 Feb. The bug will disappear by avoiding pig-haired carpets and tiles.
pig-jawed adj.
ΚΠ
1942 ‘M. Innes’ Daffodil Affair i. v. 30 ‘A nice dog,’ Appleby said... Mr Gee swung round. ‘Dish-faced,’ he said... ‘And undershot... Pig-jawed, in fact.’
1990 C. R. Johnson Middle Passage (1991) iv. 82 A pig-jawed former circus strong man with a walrus moustache.
pig-snouted adj.
ΚΠ
1923 E. Sitwell Bucolic Comedies 9 And old pig-snouted Darkness grunts and roots in the hovels.
2001 Newsday (N.Y.) (Nexis) 30 Sept. d14 ‘Gluttony’ features scores of mutants: human heads spouting arms and legs, pig-snouted frogs.
e. Similative (used virtually as an intensifier).
pig fat adj.
ΚΠ
1897 Cavalry Tactics ii. 8 Not..that the troop horse is useless if he is not pig fat.
1940 Times 5 Mar. 13/1 Although it has to be admitted that the horse looked pig fat, he was good enough..to win by three lengths.
2003 Houston Chron. (Nexis) 1 Oct. 1 Ducks on the farm are force-fed until they get pig fat.
pig-ignorance n.
ΚΠ
1969 L. Chester et al. Presidential Campaign 1968 480 Of all the performances.., Thurmond's was by far the most memorable, surpassing even his own high standards of bully-ragging, pig-ignorance, and splenetic irrelevance.
1990 Gay Scotl. Dec. 23/3 The ‘Sun’, appears to exalt pig-ignorance as a way of life.
2009 O. D. Edwards in D. B. Forrester & D. Gay Worship & Liturgy in Context xiii. 187 We have dismissed Bigotry from our watchtowers only to enthrone Mammon warmly clad in pig-ignorance.
pig-ignorant adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > want of knowledge, ignorance > [adjective] > completely
know-nothing1818
omninescient1890
pig-ignorant1956
1956 ‘V, Rowans’ His Story iii. 42 in Loving Couple He shuddered at the very thought of..Bernice being enmeshed in the web of Miss Schmidt—a captive, forever, to Miss Schmidt's..pig-ignorant opinions.
1965 L. Dunne Goodbye to Hill 25 I didn't want him to think I was pig ignorant altogether.
2005 W. Logan Undiscovered Country 291 Lowell's readers may not yet be so pig-ignorant.
pig-lucky adj.
ΚΠ
1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath xvi. 253 ‘Get her fixed?’ ‘We was pig lucky,’ said Tom. ‘Got a part 'fore dark.’
1995 Marketing (Nexis) 28 Sept. I can think of few businesses in the world so dumb... How pig-lucky Iain Vallance and his cohorts are that Mercury were even dumber.
pig-sober adj. rare
ΚΠ
1929 C. Hume Dish for Gods i. ii. 20 I ask you how in the name of God is an intelligent man to go in pig sober and talk to a jury the way they'll understand?
1945 A. Koestler Twilight Bar iii. 62 I thought so. Pig-sober.
† pig-sticky adj. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xv. [Circe] 430 Eat it and get all pigsticky.
pig stupid adj.
ΚΠ
1913 Bellman 5 July 17/1 They are a stupid lot, these people—pig-stupid.
1972 J. Wainwright Requiem for Loser iv. 82 I'm not pig-ignorant... But you're pig-stupid.
2001 Hull Daily Mail (Nexis) 6 Aug. 9 The increasingly startling presentation of images, on moronic youth telly and the pig stupid Internet.
pig-ugly adj.
ΚΠ
1964 Minneapolis Star 9 July 14 b/1 It is the Fourth of July weekend and we begin with pig-ugly motorists cramming their way out of the city with impatiently blaring horns.
1983 Sports Illustr. 19 Sept. 62/1 I've heard this Trotter is pig-ugly.
2001 Guardian 20 Apr. ii. 7/4 A pig-ugly, roadside building which houses a petrol station, a 24-hour shop and a bottled gas centre.
2013 Agni (Boston Univ.) No. 77. 63 Ernie was a pig-ugly, brutish creature—fingers constantly stained Popsicle-orange.
C2.
a.
pig bin n. a bin in which waste food is collected to be used as pig fodder; (figurative) a greedy person; cf. pig bucket n.
ΚΠ
1942 Times 9 June 2/3 Avoidance of waste does not mean throwing bread into a pig bin.
1959 I. Opie & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren ix. 167 They call him [sc. a greedy person]: dustbin,..pig-bin, [etc.].
1996 H. Fielding Bridget Jones's Diary (1997) 14 The trouble with working in publishing is that reading in your spare time is a bit like being a dustman and snuffling through the pig bin in the evening.
pig-board n. Surfing a type of surfboard with a narrow nose and broad tail.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > water sports except racing > surfing > [noun] > surfboard > types of
paddle-board1785
bellyboard1957
pig-board1959
malibu1962
gun1963
hot dog1963
pop-out1963
sausage board1963
skim-board1965
wakeboard1966
log1967
pintail1967
longboard1970
boogie board1976
bodyboard1979
thruster1982
mini-mal1988
funboard1992
kitesurfer1994
kiteboard1996
quad1999
1959 J. Bloomfield Know-how in Surf 62 The ‘pig’ board, which is from 8 to 10 feet long with a slight turn-up at the nose and a wide back.
1992 P. Theroux Happy Isles Oceania xxi. 608 What in current surfing jargon would be the banana of the pig-board.
pig boy n. a boy employed to look after pigs; (formerly also) †a type of someone coarse, rough, or uneducated (obsolete).
ΚΠ
1735 H. Fielding Old Man taught Wisdom 22 I'd as soon have one of my Father's Carters, ay, or his Cart Horses: Why, you are little better than our Pig-Boy.
1845 Dolman's Mag. 1 Nov. 371 They could not be certain that the peelers only wanted to trap them..for Sabbath-breaking... Hence their repugnance to proceed in the presence of this ever-hated and ever-despised class—the pig-boy peelers.
1997 Scotsman (Nexis) 6 Sept. 21 The ghost of an Orkney pig boy who remembers the fun and jollity of his life.
pig bread n. [see etymological note] †(a) acorns, used as food for pigs (obsolete); (b) bread, usually stale or of inferior quality, used as food for pigs.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > dishes and prepared food > bread > [noun] > low-quality bread
pig breadOE
swainloaf1358
bread of afflictiona1425
bread of trete1607
OEPicbred [see sense 1a].
1836 Times 25 May 5/2 The poor had got wheaten bread at the same price that the pig bread had cost.
2004 www.kountrylife.com 6 Sept. (O.E.D. Archive) ‘You expect us to eat pig bread?’... ‘It's not pig bread’ I say, ‘It's thrift store bread.’
† pig bribe adj. Obsolete rare (perhaps) corrupt, venal, open to bribery.
ΚΠ
a1625 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Coxcombe v. iii, in Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Pp2/2 Why kneele you to such a pig bribe [1679 pig brib'd] fellow?
pig car n. (a) chiefly North American, a railway car for transporting pigs; (b) slang a police car.
ΚΠ
1909 Columbus (Ohio) Evening Disp. 6 July 7/3 The writer saw a load of baled hay in a pig car at the foot of Gay street, ready for transportation somewhere on the Columbus Urbana & Western.
1970 G. Jackson Let. 10 June in Soledad Brother (1971) 36 I sat in the back of the pig car and bled for two hours.
1990 M. Brave Bird & R. Erdoes Lakota Woman (1991) viii. 120 All these Indians and they can't total one lousy pig car!
pig cheer n. now chiefly historical pig meat or offal, or food products made from this, esp. surplus meat given away to friends and neighbours after a pig has been killed.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > dishes and prepared food > meat dishes > [noun] > pork dishes
souse1391
cockagricec1400
shieldc1400
head cheese1831
hogshead cheese1839
pig cheer1873
porchetta1929
carnitas1949
bak kut teh1969
sisig1987
samgyeopsal1993
1873 J. Fowler in Archaeologia 44 208 Christmas was formerly, as now, the principal season for ‘pig-cheer’.
1915 G. H. Frodsham Bishop's Pleasaunce 110 A good basket of pig-cheer means a pork-pie, a link of sausages, a piece of uncooked spare-rib or chine, a mould of brawn, some scraps of leaf fat, a mince-pie or two, [etc.]
1999 Guardian (Nexis) 27 Feb. 9 The passing on to friends and neighbours of any pig meat, called ‘pig cheer’, that could not be immediately consumed or preserved.
pig cut n. (a) a piece or slice of pig meat; (b) rare a wound inflicted by a wild pig.
ΚΠ
1913 Lima (Ohio) Daily News 19 Sept. 7/3 Pork, prime pig cuts.
1920 Blackwood's Mag. Jan. 111/2 Pig-cuts, sprained tendons, stakes, and other untoward occurrences, put a lot of horses on the sick-list.
1957 C. S. Belshaw Great Village x. 145 At 6 o'clock the cricketers distributed the yams, bananas, and pig cuts between nine heaps.
pig feast n. a feast following the slaughter of a pig or for which pigs are slaughtered; one consisting principally of roast pork.
ΚΠ
1866 J. Turrill Diary Dec. in Oxfordshire Market Gardener (1993) 113 Tomorrow night is to be another pig feast, two roast pigs and fixing at 8d. each, just for a frolic.
1939 F. Thompson Lark Rise i. 13 The official ‘pig feast’, when fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, married children and grandchildren..arrived to dinner.
1997 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 3 418/1 Secondary burial rights for a deceased chief at which masked figures dance and a large pig feast is staged.
pig feasting n. the celebration of a pig feast or feasts.
ΚΠ
1966 T. G. C. Murrell et al. in Lancet 29 Jan. 217/2 It was felt that the syndrome in New Guinea, being ætiologically related to pig-feasting, should be designated by a specific name.
1994 Current Anthropol. 35 135/2 The entire village declares a year of pig feasting.
pig feeder n. (a) a person who feeds pigs; (b) a container from which pigs are fed.
ΚΠ
1846 Times 9 Dec. 5/4 His Lordship may congratulate himself on his success as a pig feeder.
1909 Westm. Gaz. 30 Aug. 3/3 No pig-feeder would deny the qualities of middlings.
1998 Independent 24 Oct. (Mag.) 47/1 There are shapely cast-iron pig feeders that make good garden planters.
pigfucker n. coarse slang (originally and chiefly U.S.) a despicable or contemptible person.
ΚΠ
?1939 ‘Justinian’ Americana Sexualis 31 Pig-Fucker, a concupiscent man whose sensibilities are so atrophied that he would even ‘fuck a pig’.
1999 T. Parker et al. South Park (film script, 8th draft) 9 You're such a pigfucker, Phillip!
pigfucking adj. coarse slang (originally and chiefly U.S.) (frequently as an intensifier) despicable, contemptible.
ΚΠ
1968 H. S. Thompson Let. 3 Jan. in Fear & Loathing in Amer. (2000) 14 That evil pigfucking skunk. For the past year he's been hounding me like some sort of cop out of Dostoyevsky.
2002 A. Nevis Lares v. 112 Get back to your pigfucking filth!
pig house n. a shed or barn for pigs; = pigsty n.; also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > pig > [noun] > habitation of
pigsty1580
pig house1677
pigpen1803
pig bed1821
pig run1848
1495–6 Accts. Abbotsbury, Dorset in Middle Eng. Dict. at Pigge Pyggeshowse.]
1677 in Trans. Shropshire Archæol. Soc. (1905) 216 Orle poles for ye pig howse.
1787 W. Marshall Rural Econ. Norfolk I. 83 A Norfolk farmer walks into his ‘pig-house’, at a door similar to those of his other outbuildings.
1863 W. H. Russell My Diary North & South 350 Each [house] guarded by a paling around a piece of vegetable garden, a pig house, and poultry box.
1963 Amer. Speech 38 173 A sorority [in Kansas University] known for its unprepossessing members..campus pig house..pig house.
1997 Farmers Guardian 19 Sept. 16/4 A revolutionary round pig house designed for sows, fatteners or even poultry.
pig-hull n. [ < pig n.1 + hull n.1 4b] English regional (northern) = pigsty n.
ΚΠ
1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) Pighul, a pig cote or stye.
1976 Rev. Eng. Stud. 27 322 Our casual reader might well conclude that the ‘distinctly dialect words’ are lewse, pig-hole, and pig-hull.
1985 K. Howarth Sounds Gradely Pig-hull, a pigsty.
pig leather n. and adj. = pigskin n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1829 S. Wilderspin Infant Educ. (ed. 4) xiv. 237 Pig leather, seal skin, wash leather, beaver, &c.
1927 Mansfield (Ohio) News 1 July 6/2 (advt.) Men's pig leather belts with plaid silk webbing.
2002 South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) (Nexis) 2 Apr. 14 Some parts of China's leather industry, especially those in the pig leather tannery sector, were badly hit by the sharp decline in demand.
pig net n. a type of strong net.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > textile fabric manufactured in specific way > [noun] > with open texture > net or mesh > other
caul1481
mosquito netting1768
whip-net1839
filet1881
Grecian netting1882
vitrage net (also cloth)1886
pig net1948
micromesh1959
1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) Index p. xlvi/3 Nets... Pig.]
1948 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 20 May 13/5 Stalkers with a pig net prepared to get busy.
1998 Jrnl. (Newcastle) (Nexis) 29 Sept. 10 The spring cart, complete with shelvings and pig net, drawn by Captain, our Clydesdale gelding.
pig-pail n. now rare a pail from which pigs are fed; = pig bin n.
ΚΠ
1851 R. S. Surtees Soapey Sponge's Sporting Tour in New Monthly Mag. Feb. lxvi. 231 [The hounds] were presently up to their ears in the pig-pail.
1917 Times 11 Jan. 10/1 Edible domestic refuse should be reserved..for pig-feeding. The pig pail should be kept free from..injurious substances.
1952 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 4 June 22/7 1 good hog crate, chicken feeder, scythe, rake, cider barrel, pig pails, [etc.].
pig philosophy n. banal, vacuous, or feeble-minded philosophy.
ΚΠ
1850 T. Carlyle Jesuitism in Latter-day Pamphlets viii. 28 (heading) Pig Philosophy.
1874 L. Carr Judith Gwynne I. i. 8 The pig-philosophy of ‘rest and be thankful’.
1994 Guardian (Nexis) 26 July t11 The common view is that the Victorians—when they thought about politics at all—followed the ‘pig philosophy’ of utilitarianism.
pig potato n. an inferior or small potato used to feed pigs; = hog potato n. at hog n.1 Compounds 2a; also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > animal food > [noun] > fodder > pig fodder > other pig fodder
defrutc1420
hog meata1500
shack1536
hog potato1776
pig potato1796
Tottenham Pudding1944
1796 J. G. Stedman Narr. Exped. Surinam II. xxvi. 244 These roots are tuberous, flattish, small,..not unlike pig-potatoes.
1866 ‘G. Eliot’ Felix Holt II. xxviii. 203 Not very big or fine, but a second size—a pig-potato, like.
1996 News & Rec. (Greensboro, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 21 July (People & Places section) 12 We have horse balm, -bean, -mint, -nettle, -weed and horseradish along with hog fennel, hog peanut, pig potato, pigweeds, and sow-thistle.
pig-proof adj. designating a fence, etc., which is secure against pigs.
ΚΠ
c1839 in Daily Chron. (1909) 2 Feb. 4/4 [Melbourne Cricket Club decided to enclose the ground with a] four-rail, pig-proof fence.
1883 Pall Mall Gaz. 21 Sept. 12/2 The immense number of wild pigs makes cultivation impracticable without pig-proof fences.
1999 New Yorker 12 Apr. 106/1 I suppose it is good to know that Excedrin's packaging is not only childproof but also pigproof.
pig ring n. a ring or strip of metal fixed in the snout of a pig to prevent it from grubbing.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping of pigs > [noun] > nose-ring
hog ring1648
staple1688
staple-ring1707
nose-jewel1844
pig ring1862
snout-ring1875
1862 W. R. Wilde Catal. Antiq. Royal Irish Acad. 18 A small portion had been cut out..to make a pig-ring.
2001 C. H. Wendel Encycl. Antique Tools & Machinery 72/2 Pig rings for instance, are somewhat smaller than hog rings; thus two different sizes of ringers were required.
pig roast n. originally U.S. a social gathering where a whole roast pig is cooked and served.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > meal > feast > [noun] > feast by type of food
ambigu1669
oyster feast1718
waffle frolic1744
turtle-frolic1750
turtle-feast1753
turtle1771
turtle-dinner1805
waffle party1808
whitebait dinner1809
blood feast1832
sausage party1848
luau1853
pig roast1887
corn-roast1899
hog roast1908
marshmallow roast1914
spit roast1927
1887 Trenton (New Jersey) Times 25 Nov. 3/4 The members of the Post were invited by Charles Zwirlein to a pig roast.
1999 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 12 Aug. 22/4 Only one person complains of noninclusion and faulty directions to the pig roast.
pig run n. an area of land used by (wild) pigs; a field in which pigs are kept; (also) a track made or used by wild pigs in a forest.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > pig > [noun] > habitation of
pigsty1580
pig house1677
pigpen1803
pig bed1821
pig run1848
1848 T. Chapman Jrnl. 3 Dec. (typescript) II. 381 Thousands of Acres on all sides of you... Here and there little patches are under cultivation—the rest are ‘pig-runs’.
1900 Geogr. Jrnl. 16 174 In dense forest where the pig-runs are the only means of passage.
2003 Illawarra (Austral.) Mercury (Nexis) 15 July (Suppl.) 36 There was also a well-kept orchard..plus a large pig run and two water mills.
pigshit adj. and n. coarse slang (originally U.S.) (a) adj. worthless, trashy; used as a general term of abuse; (b) n. rubbish, nonsense (cf. bullshit n.); (literal) pig manure.
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1934 J. T. Farrell Young Manhood Studs Lonigan 221 I'll sober up when I put a lily on the grave of every pigs—t Irishman here.
1965 A. Lurie Nowhere City iii. 28 ‘Pigshit,’ Glory suggested.
1980 T. Reynolds in C. Doria Tenth Muse 321 Anudder shitcake. He say he want pigshit dis time.
1992 R. Harris Fatherland iii. 147 Intellectual pigshit... Buhler probably drank the vodka to give him the guts to kill himself.
pig-sick adj. British (a) (of land, a building, etc.) overused and degraded by pigs; (b) (slang) annoyed, disgusted.
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1934 Times 12 Feb. 18/1 The problem of dealing with ‘pig sick’ land and buildings.
1938 Times 25 July 18/2 To avoid ‘pig-sick’ conditions the folding unit system has been adopted by some breeders, allowing the pigs a daily change onto fresh ground.
1942 Hartlepool Mail 16 Jan. 2/3 All these petty items are making the motorist just pig-sick and it is high time the police and bench..sang our praises for a change.
1948 A. Baron From City, from Plough i. 9 Wha's up, Sergeant?.. You look pigsick.
1993 Guardian 31 Aug. i. 11/2 We are pig-sick with the agencies and pig-sick with the employers when we get there.
2007 T. York Keeping Pigs ii. 13 Allowing the land to rest will help prevent it from getting ‘pig sick’ and harbouring the potential to spread disease.
2015 Sun (Ireland ed.) 26 July (Sport section) 40 His Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg was left feeling pig-sick at the sight of the grinning Englishman.
pig sign n. Hunting (chiefly U.S. and New Zealand) the trail or trace of a wild pig, such as droppings, tracks, etc.
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1960 B. Crump Good Keen Man 57 I was thoroughly interrogated every evening as to the whereabouts of any fresh pig-sign I had seen that day [in the bush].
1980 Jrnl. Appl. Ecol. 17 550 In the autumn deer pellets increased markedly in El Matorral, and pig sign decreased.
2001 Seattle Weekly (Nexis) 11 Oct. 38 Now Smith can see what looks like fresh pig signs in the heavily trampled and gouged-out yard.
pig station n. slang a police station.
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1970 G. Jackson Let. 10 June in Soledad Brother (1971) 34 I stopped attending school regularly, and started getting ‘picked up’ by the pigs more often. The pig station, a lecture, and oak-stick therapeutics.
1998 Follow-up on Attack at Malcolm X Center in misc.activism.progressive (Usenet newsgroup) 25 Sept. We then marched silently to the Pig station.
† pig stone n. [after either French pierre de porc (1812; 1769 as pierre porc) or post-classical Latin lapis porcinus (1690)] Obsolete rare A kind of bezoar from South-East Asia (sometimes identified as a gallstone from a boar, or from a Malayan porcupine), formerly supposed to have medicinal properties; = swinestone n. 1.
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1861 R. T. Hulme tr. C. H. Moquin-Tandon Elements Med. Zool. 67 Bezoars. A. Stony (intestinal concretions) of the monkey, wild boar, Indian hog, ox, [etc.]. [Note] Pig stone, lapis porcinus.
pig tight adj. = pig-proof adj.
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1855 N. P. Willis Out-doors at Idlewild 66 ‘Yes, sir,’ said he, after looking at it a moment, ‘but it isn't pig-tight!’
1901 Times Democrat (Lima, Ohio) 4 Feb. To profitably produce pork the farmer must pasture swine, both old and young. This necessitates a pig-tight pasture fence.
a1930 D. H. Lawrence Sex, Lit. & Censorship (1955) 12 The Clean Books League, whose object was to make the law..‘horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong’.
1998 Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) (Nexis) 20 Sept. t5 Brian, we're gonna make it [sc. a fence] horse high, cow strong and pig tight.
pig track n. (a) a path beaten by a wild pig; the tracks or footprints left by a wild pig; (b) (in plural) U.S. regional (chiefly southern), the type of something commonplace or (in later use) vulgar; esp. in (as) common as pig tracks.
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1834 E. Markham N.Z. Recoll. (1963) 35 All tracks seem to be pig tracks in the first instance.
1853 J. G. Baldwin Flush Times Alabama & Mississippi 307 They are sending gentlemen there as regular as pigtracks.
1952 Argosy June 100 In his breeding and appearance he may be ‘common as pig tracks’.
2001 Northern Territory News (Austral.) (Nexis) 31 Dec. 3 I was on my way to town when I spotted the pig tracks across the road.
pig trotter n. the foot of a pig as an article of food.
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the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > pork > [noun] > cuts or parts
pig's footc1475
hog's foot1561
hog's cheek1573
bald-rib1598
spring1598
list1623
griskin1699
chine1712
pork griskin1725
rearing1736
pork chop?1752
hand1794
faggot1815
hog round1819
sweet-bone1826
butt1845
pig trotter1851
pork belly1863
Hodge1879
fore-end1906
fore-hock1923
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 18/2 The..pig-trotter women will give you notice when the time is come.
1957 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 13 July 7/6 (advt.) Pork sausages, pork chops, pig trotters, lamb, goat mutton etc.
2003 Village Voice (N.Y.) (Nexis) 13 May 34 Key is caldo gallego, a hopelessly rich soup bobbing with kale, white beans, pig trotters, and wine-laced sausage.
pig trough n. a trough from which pigs eat; also figurative.
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1638 in Early Stuart Househ. Accts. (1986) 180 Paid Mason for makeing of a piggstrow and to drive Fethers.]
1724 W. Stukeley Itinerarium Curiosum 39 I went to see the stone, us'd as a pig trough at Wandlebury.
1871 D. H. Strother Virginia Illustr. 123 Their horses [were] still engaged in munching some remarkably fine oats, which had been served up in an old pig-trough.
1992 N. Cohn Heart of World x. 130 If he wished to roister, he must go wallow in the pig troughs of the bowery, the grogshops of the Five Points.
pig-tub n. = pig bin n.
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1862 Times 20 Dec. 11/5 When she took the grease to sell it was by direction of the cook, but before she came it was put into the pig-tub.
1889 A. Sidgwick in Jrnl. Educ. Feb. 117 We began with Delectus—an awful institution, no more reading than a pigtub is food.
1956 B. Russell Portraits from Memory 64 Their wives agreed to share a pig tub and each said that the other contributed less than her moiety.
pig wire n. a type of wire mesh used for fencing.
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1911 Gettysburg (Pa.) Times 8 Dec. The undersigned..will sell at public sale..one grind stone, lot of pig wire, chicken wire and barbed wire, [etc.].
2002 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 30 Nov. 15 Contractors moved in to build a new pig wire fence three feet further forward into the Richards's land.
pig wool n. Angling rare the finer hair of the pig, used in making flies for anglers.
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > skin or hide > skin with hair attached or fur > [noun] > hair > specific type or of specific animal
horsehairc1305
bristlec1314
brock-wool1500
camel's hair1771
fine hair1885
pig wool1892
1892 Gentlewoman's Bk. Sports I. 20 His fly~book of silk-bodied, pig-wool, red or orange feathered flies.
1984 K. E. Perrault Standard Dict. Fishing Flies Gloss. 697/1 Pig Wool, under hair of the pig. The softer furry hair under the bristles.
b. In names of animals and plants (cf. hog n.1 15a, Compounds 2d). See also pigface n., pigfish n., pig-rat n.
† pig-cony n. Obsolete rare the guinea pig, Cavia porcellus.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Rodentia or rodent > superfamily Hystricomorpha (porcupine or guinea-pig) > [noun] > family Caviidae (cavy) > genus Cavia (guinea-pig)
pig-cony1607
guinea pig1664
restless cavy1771
rock cavy1771
moco1831
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 112 Indian little Pig-Cony. I receiued the picture of this Beast from a certain Noble-man.
pig deer n. the babirusa, Babyrousa babyrussa, of Sulawesi and neighbouring islands; = babirusa n.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > [noun] > group Suiformes (hippos and pigs) > family Suidae (swine) > genus Babiroussa (babirussa)
babirusa1673
Indian hog1754
hog deer1798
stag-hog1827
pig deer1869
1869 A. R. Wallace Malay Archipel. I. xviii. 433 A much more curious animal of this family is the Babirusa or Pig-deer, so named by the Malays from its long and slender legs, and curved tusks resembling horns.
2000 Sunday Telegram (Mass.) (Nexis) 18 June f1 The babirusa, or pig deer, with its tusks growing up through its snout and curling back over its forehead, is no longer seen in the reserve.
pig-fern n. New Zealand a common weedy fern of New Zealand, Paesia scaberula (family Dennstaedtiaceae).
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the world > plants > particular plants > ferns > [noun] > hard ferns
hard fern1828
crown fern1849
pig-fern1926
1926 F. W. Hilgendorf Weeds N.Z. ii. 19 Hard fern (Paesia scaberula), called also pig fern and silver fern, is abundant in both islands.
1994 J. Lasenby Dead Man's Head 11 Denny closed his eyes and hung on to the pig-fern.
pig-footed bandicoot n. the bandicoot Chaeropus ecaudatus, with only two functional toes on the forefoot, which was formerly found in the dry regions of Australia but was extinct by the mid 20th cent.
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1836 T. L. Mitchell Three Exped. Eastern Austral. II. 131 Pig-footed bandicoot, This animal was of the size of a young wild rabbit, and of nearly the same colour.
1965 E. Troughton Furred Animals of Austral. (ed. 8) 76 The Pig-footed Bandicoot is regarded as a specialized offshoot of the plain-inhabiting members of the genus Perameles.
2001 Guardian 5 Apr. (Science section) 3/6 Like the rest of Australia it has lost the pig-footed bandicoot, toolache wallaby and hare wallaby.
pig lily n. [compare Afrikaans varkblom, literally ‘pig flower’] South African the arum lily, Zantedeschia aethiopica, native to South Africa, the root of which is eaten by pigs.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > arum lily
calla1601
Richardia1831
Egyptian lily1847
pig lily1848
arum lily1856
trumpet-lily1857
1848 C. J. F. Bunbury Jrnl. Resid. Cape of Good Hope viii. 188 Calla (Zantedeschia) Æthiopica... Commonly called at the Cape the Pig Lily.
1925 F. C. Slater Centenary Bk. S. Afr. Verse 232 There is no true arum in South Africa. The plant meant is probably Zantedeschia aethiopica... It is usually called ‘Arum Lily’ or ‘Pig Lily’.
2001 Myrtle Beach (S. Carolina) Sun-News (Nexis) 5 May e3 Calla lilies are native to South Africa where they are also known as arum lilies and pig lilies.
pig louse n. †(a) British regional a woodlouse (obsolete); (b) a large louse, Haematopinus suis, which is parasitic on pigs.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Crustacea > [noun] > subclass Malacostraca > division Arthostraca > order Isopoda > family Oniscidae or genus Oniscus
lockchestera1400
sow14..
lugdora1425
louk?a1450
lockchestc1450
cheslip1530
palmer1538
chestworm1544
Robin Goodfellow's louse1552
monk's peason1558
cheslock1574
porcelet1578
swine louse1579
hog-louse1580
multiped1601
kitchen-bob1610
woodlouse1611
loop1612
millipede1612
timber-sow1626
cheeselog1657
sow-louse1658
thurse-louse1658
onisc1661
monkey pea1682
slater1684
slatter1739
sow-bug1750
Oniscus1806
pig louse1819
hob-thrush1828
land-slater1863
pig's louse1888
wall-louse1899
oniscoid1909
chucky-pig1946
1819 G. Samouelle Entomologist's Compend. 111 It is commonly called Pig-louse, Wood-louse, Millepede.
1959 tr. B. Rensch Evol. above Species Level (1960) iv. 70 In the pig louse (Haematopinus suis), some symbionts are placed in additional depots—mycetomes of the female—to be used in the ‘infection’ of the eggs.
1999 Countryside & Small Stock Jrnl. (Nexis) 1 May 66 The pig louse and mange mite are spread by pig-to-pig contact.
pig mouse n. British regional rare the water shrew, Neomys fodiens.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > [noun] > order Insectivora > family Soricidae > genus Neomys (water-shrew)
water shrew-mouse1764
blind-mouse1770
water shrew1771
pig mouse1905
1905 Standard 8 Feb. 2/5 The ‘pig mouse’ of the cress farmer is the water shrew.
† pig pea n. Obsolete a variety of field pea (cf. hog pea n. at hog n.1 Compounds 2e).
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > pulses or plants producing pulses > [noun] > pea > other types of pea or pea-plant
rouncival1570
garden pea1573
field pease1597
vale-grey1615
rose pea1629
hotspur1663
seven-year pea1672
rathe-ripe1677
huff-codc1680
pigeon pea1683
hog-pease1686
shrub pea1691
field pea1707
pea1707
crown pea1726
maple rouncival1731
marrowfat1731
moratto1731
pig pea1731
sickle-pea1731
hog pea1732
maple pea1732
marrow pea1733
black eye?1740
egg-pea1744
magotty bay bean1789
Prussian1804
maple grey1805
partridge pea1812
Prussian blue1822
scimitar1834
marrow1855
fill-basket1881
string-pea1891
mattar1908
vining pea1959
1731 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. I. at Pisum The Sixteenth Sort is greatly cultivated in Dorsetshire, where they are known by the Name of Pig Peas, the Inhabitants making great Use of them to feed their Hogs.
1766 Compl. Farmer at Pease The common white pea, the gray pea, the pig pea, and some other large winter peas.
c. Chiefly Metallurgy.
† pig ballast n. Obsolete ballast in the form of pigs of iron or (rarely) lead; cf. pig of ballast n. at sense 11f.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > other equipment of vessel > [noun] > ballast
lastage1440
ballast1486
ballasting1508
kentledge1625
water ballast1759
shifting ballast1785
pig of ballast1789
pig ballast1797
sandbag1834
stiffening1894
1797 S. James Narr. Voy. 201 The boat..full of pig ballast..was always half full of water.
1880 Times 8 July 13/3 Her ballast, he believed, was five tons of iron timber and about 30 tons of pig ballast.
pig-boiling n. now historical a stage in the puddling of unrefined pig iron, which is characterized by the rapid bubbling of gas from the molten metal.
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society > occupation and work > industry > working with specific materials > working with metal > [noun] > refining > refining pig-iron
pig-boiling1856
pig-washing1887
1856 J. Hall in Birmingham Jrnl. 26 Sept. (Suppl.) 3/5 As regards the improved apparatus for the refinery, my principle is the doing away with the refinery process by pig boiling.
1928 H. M. Boylston Introd. Metall. Iron & Steel vi. 187 Hall's process was also known as the ‘pig-boiling process’ because of the vigorous boiling or bubbling of the molten metal.
1996 Amer. Metal Market (Nexis) 25 Apr. s7 Hall..improved on Henry Cort's..dry puddling process with a pig-boiling invention, which removed the carbon from pig-iron.
† pig brass n. Obsolete brass which has been cast after the initial melting together of the constituent metals of the alloy.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > alloy > [noun] > brass > types of
maslinOE
latten1340
messing1371
orichalcc1429
shruff1541
black latten1545
mellay1545
medley brass1600
medley1601
shaven latten1660
latten-brass1677
brass-latten1678
similor1778
pig brass1841
Muntz metal1842
button brass1849
oreide1857
voltaic brass1860
semilor1866
naval brass1881
1841 Ordnance Man. for Use of Officers (U.S. Army Ordnance Dept.) 207 For 100 Artillery sabre and sword belt plates..25 lbs. pig brass.
1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. II. 938 Those who remelt the pig brass, and are called ‘founders’.
pig-breaking adj. now historical designating a machine which breaks pigs of metal off from the sow (see sense 11a).
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1897 U.S. Patent 594,707 in Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 30 Nov. 1558/1 In a pig-breaking machine, the combination of a support for the pigs, two rollers, one mounted to bear on the sow, and one mounted to bear on the pigs successively [etc.].
1936 Iron & Steel Industry Oct. 111/1 We soon see that 90 per cent. of the opinion as to the relative merits of different pig irons is based upon the ease of breaking of the raw pig by a pig-breaking hammer.
2015 K. J. Kobus City of Steel vii. 211 Electric overhead cranes of ten-tons capacity were installed in all of the furnace cast-houses, and mechanical pig-breaking machines were used.
† pig-lifter n. Obsolete rare a person employed in moving pig iron.
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1892 Labour Comm. Gloss. Pig-lifters, also called ‘metal-carriers’..those who take the pig-iron out of the troughs of sand into which it has been placed to cool, and stack it on the trucks used in conveying it away for sale.
† pigmaker n. Obsolete a manufacturer of pig iron.
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1846 Daily News 30 Mar. 2/4 High prices are also injurious to the manufacturer of iron, the coal-masters and pig-makers generally getting the profit.
1864 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 27 588 Mr. Foster was enabled to take this course because certain of the pig makers had also reduced the price of the raw material.
1891 Daily News 12 Jan. 2/7 Pigmakers are complaining of the exceedingly high prices of coke.
pig mould n. any of the channels in the pig-bed; cf. sense 11b.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > metalworking equipment > [noun] > casting equipment > sand-moulding equipment > channel in
pig1665
pig mould1839
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 754 The smelter runs off the lead into the pig-moulds.
1935 E. L. Masters Vachel Lindsay ii. 37 Here Lindsay inserted a drawing of a pig mould, shaped something like a bathtub.
2002 Mod. Casting (Nexis) 1 July 39 I went back by the cupola and poured 0.25 in. of water in a pig mold and poured some iron on top.
† pig-plate n. Obsolete = pig iron n. 2.
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the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > equipment for food preparation > [noun] > plate to protect meat from fire
pig-plate1679
pig iron1732
1679 in J. A. Johnston Probate Inventories Lincoln Citizens 1661–1714 (1991) 66 1 Broyler 4 smoothing Irons 1 candle stick 1 pigg plate 11 skewers 1 Chafeing Dish.
1787 J. Farley London Art Cookery (ed. 4) 35 Having spitted your pig, sew it up, and lay it down to a brisk, clear fire, with a pig-plate hung in the middle of it.
pig-washing n. the refining of molten pig iron by treatment with molten iron oxide, etc.
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society > occupation and work > industry > working with specific materials > working with metal > [noun] > refining > refining pig-iron
pig-boiling1856
pig-washing1887
1887 J. A. Phillips Elem. Metall. (ed. 2) 280 A similar process, used for some time by Krupp, was described by the late Mr. A. L. Holley under the name of ‘pig-washing’.
1958 A. D. Merriman Dict. Metall. 244/2 Pig-washing process, a term used in reference to those methods of refining molten pig iron by oxidising treatment at relatively low temperatures.
C3. Compounds with pig's.
pig's breakfast n. colloquial something unattractive or unappetizing; a mess, a muddle (cf. dog's breakfast n. at dog n.1 Compounds 3d).
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the mind > emotion > hatred > dislike > disgust > [noun] > something which disgusts
slime1585
ipecacuanhaa1763
nastiness1831
sickener1853
disgustant1866
muck1882
pig's breakfast1933
ick1947
yuck1966
merde1968
scuzz1968
turn-off1975
put-off1977
1933 L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 9 Sept. 15/7 Two may possibly be Canterbury expressions..(1) As rough as a bag. (2) As rough as a pig's breakfast.
1947 K. M. Wells Owl Pen xvi. 95 Bits of charred wood, charcoal, old leaves and wood ash floated there in the midst of an uninviting looking white scum. It looked like poor porridge, a pig's breakfast to us.
2004 National Post (Canada) (Nexis) 5 May a18 Europe usually made a pig's breakfast of the American ideas it adopted, good or bad.
pig's cheek n. (a cut of) pork from the cheek of a pig.
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1800 W. S. Landor Poetry 73 What poet would, tho' hungry, pawn To buy thy Oscar's whole pig's cheek?
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xi. [Sirens] 277 Sitting at home after pig's cheek and cabbage.
2000 M. Evans et al. World Food: Italy 39 Guanciale Cured raw pig's cheek. Fantastic used in cooking, particularly in pasta sauces.
pig's fry n. the fried viscera of a pig.
ΚΠ
1788 J. Woodforde Diary 7 Nov. (1927) III. 63 We had for Dinner, Some Fish..Giblets, Piggs Fry.
1854 R. S. Surtees Handley Cross xlv. 341 The savouriness of the pig's fry she was cooking.
1998 Bristol Evening Post (Nexis) 18 Apr. 36 The meat used was called pig's fry and it was an offal assortment—liver, heart, melt (spleen) and lights (lung), all wrapped in caul—a fat-streaked membrane.
pig's hair n. and adj. (a) n. the hair of a pig; (b) adj. (usually with hyphen), designating something made with this.
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1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 158 Piggs-hair..is somewhat triagonal, and seems to have neither pith nor pore.
1767 tr. D. Cranz Hist. Greenland I. iv. 125 The hair is a little browner or a pale white, nor does it lie smooth, but rough, bristly and intermixed like pigs hair.
1894 G. Du Maurier Trilby (1895) 105 His twiddling little footle pig's-hair brush.
2003 Sunday Times (Johannesburg) (Nexis) 9 Mar. 2 All the paintbrushes in his store were made of pig's hair.
† pig's louse n. British regional (Obsolete) = pig louse n. at Compounds 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Crustacea > [noun] > subclass Malacostraca > division Arthostraca > order Isopoda > family Oniscidae or genus Oniscus
lockchestera1400
sow14..
lugdora1425
louk?a1450
lockchestc1450
cheslip1530
palmer1538
chestworm1544
Robin Goodfellow's louse1552
monk's peason1558
cheslock1574
porcelet1578
swine louse1579
hog-louse1580
multiped1601
kitchen-bob1610
woodlouse1611
loop1612
millipede1612
timber-sow1626
cheeselog1657
sow-louse1658
thurse-louse1658
onisc1661
monkey pea1682
slater1684
slatter1739
sow-bug1750
Oniscus1806
pig louse1819
hob-thrush1828
land-slater1863
pig's louse1888
wall-louse1899
oniscoid1909
chucky-pig1946
1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. Pig's louse, the common wood-louse.
pig's meat n. (a) food for pigs; also figurative; (b) = pigmeat n. 1.
ΚΠ
1794 G. Wakefield Exam. Age of Reason 47 My countrymen must be degenerated into a swinish multitude indeed, to find any nutriment in such a mess of pigs-meat.
1896 S. R. Crockett Grey Man xxxv. 233 A pail of pigs' meat in her hand.
2002 Times-Picayune (New Orleans) (Nexis) 26 Oct. (Metro section) 1 He explained how all his relatives and neighbors would gather to help his grandfather process the pig's meat.
pig's parsley n. British regional any of several plants of the family Apiaceae ( Umbelliferae), esp. cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris, and upright hedge-parsley, Torilis japonica.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Umbelliferae (umbellifers) > [noun] > cow-parsley
casshe1548
mock chervil1548
wild cicely1597
pig's parsleya1697
cow-weed1744
wild chervil1783
cow parsley1785
cow chervil1804
beaked parsley1841
Queen Anne's lace1873
hare-parsley1874
a1697 J. Aubrey Nat. Hist. Wilts. (Bodl. MS Aubrey 1) f. 107 The taylers wife..made a Pultesse of Pigges-parseley stampt, with oatemeale grutts: and tooke off the Swelling in a very short time.
1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. Pig's parsley, wild parsley. Caucalis anthriscus.
1955 G. Grigson Englishman's Flora 211 Upright Hedge-Parsley. Torilis japonica... Local names... Mother-dee.., Ches; Pig's Parsley, Som; Red Kex, Yks.
pig's trotter n. = pig trotter n. at Compounds 2a.
ΚΠ
1845 Times 25 Mar. 5/3 All kinds of eatables, ham sandwiches, pigs' trotters, fried sausages, roast turkey, [etc.]
1941 Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 2 Jan. 7/3 Dinner: pigs' trotters, carrots, onions and potatoes.
2004 Courier Mail (Queensland) (Nexis) 29 May l8 There are entrees of stuffed pig's trotters, curry-poached oysters, and red mullet with tomato and white anchovy terrine.
pig's whistle n. originally and chiefly U.S. (a) (now rare), a very short space of time, an instant (cf. pig's whisper n. 1); (b) a thing of little value or significance.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > shortness or brevity in time > [noun] > moment or instant
hand-whileOE
prinkOE
start-while?c1225
twinkling1303
rese?c1335
prick1340
momenta1382
pointa1382
minutea1393
instant1398
braida1400
siquarea1400
twink14..
whip?c1450
movement1490
punct1513
pissing whilea1556
trice1579
turning of a hand1579
wink1585
twinklec1592
semiquaver1602
punto1616
punctilio of time1620
punctum1620
breathing1625
instance1631
tantillation1651
rapc1700
crack1725
turning of a straw1755
pig's whisper1780
jiffy1785
less than no time1788
jiff1797
blinka1813
gliffy1820
handclap1822
glimpsea1824
eyewink1836
thought1836
eye-blink1838
semibreve1845
pop1847
two shakes of a lamb's taila1855
pig's whistle1859
time point1867
New York minute1870
tick1879
mo?1896
second1897
styme1897
split-second1912
split minute1931
no-time1942
sec.1956
1859 J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (ed. 2) (at cited word) ‘I'll do so in less than a pig's whistle’.
1935 E. Pound in Esquire May 31/2 Prof. Pigou..has taken to Alpinism, and says he dun't care a pig's whistle.
1994 Washington Post (Nexis) 27 Sept. a20 Neither zone is worth a pig's whistle if it's not enforced with airpower.
pig's wool n. the finer hair of a pig, chiefly used in making flies for anglers (cf. pig wool n. at Compounds 2a); (formerly also) †a blanket made from this (obsolete).
ΚΠ
1344 in A. H. Thomas Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls London Guildhall (1926) I. 208 (MED) [Ordinance that all chalons made of material called] Piggeswolle [be sold before Easter].
1356 Close Rolls Edward III 257 (MED) [Two mattresses..seven coverlets..four] pigges wolles.
1860 C. M. Yonge Hopes & Fears I. iii. 204 ‘Have you brought the pig's wool?.. I can't find a scrap of that shade, though I've nearly broke my heart in the tackle-shops’.
1919 J. H. Hale How to tie Salmon Flies (ed. 2) ii. 9 Seal's fur, pig's wool, and mohair, dyed all colours, are used for the bodies of flies.
1994 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 24 Sept. 7 According to Mr Lightbody the dressing of the Durham Ranger is pigs' wool, generally taken from the area around the pigs' testicles.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

pign.2adj.

Brit. /pɪɡ/, U.S. /pɪɡ/, Scottish English /pɪɡ/
Forms: Middle English (1900s– historical) pygg, 1500s pigge, 1800s– pig (now English regional (northern), Irish English (northern), and U.S. regional); Scottish pre-1700 peeg, pre-1700 pege, pre-1700 peig, pre-1700 pige, pre-1700 pigge, pre-1700 pik, pre-1700 1700s pyg, pre-1700 1700s– pig, pre-1700 1700s– pigg, 1900s– peg- (in compounds).
Origin: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: pig n.1
Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps compare slightly earlier piggin n. (although see also discussion at that entry), and perhaps compare also prig n.2; perhaps originally a transferred use of pig n.1, perhaps on account of the resemblance of the vessels to a pig. Middle Eng. Dict. at pig n. suggests that the container for wine mentioned in quot. c1450 at sense A. 1a may perhaps have been the hide of a pig used as a wineskin.
Now chiefly Scottish and English regional (northern).
A. n.2
1.
a. A pot, pitcher, jar, or other vessel, usually made of earthenware; a crock; (in plural) crockery or earthenware generally.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > vessel > [noun] > earthenware vessel
crockc1000
pigc1450
pot1463
muga1522
olla1535
test1545
capruncle1657
fictile1849
cruche1856
figuline1878
c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1905) II. 340 (MED) Euerilk day..was broght vnto hym a lofe of bread and a pygg with wyne.
1488 in T. Dickson Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1877) I. 79 Deliuerit be Dene Robert Hog, channoune of Halirudhous, to the Thesaurare, tauld in presens of the Chancellare, Lord Lile..in a pyne pig of tyn.
a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid vii. xiv. 25 Furth of ane payntit pyg, quhair as he stude, A gret river defundand or a flude.
1588 in W. Greenwell Wills & Inventories Registry Durham (1860) II. 312 j litle wood coup, j paer of muster quernes of wood, j litle wood pigge, iiij wood dishes, j earthen panne.
1631 Edinb. Test. LV. f. 63v, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (at cited word) Of reddie money in ane littell pynt pig xxij lib.
a1646 D. Wedderburn Vocabula (1685) 13 Urna, a pitcher or pig.
1724 in A. Ramsay Tea-table Misc. (1733) II. 181 A pig, a pot, and a kirn there ben.
a1774 R. Fergusson Poems Var. Subj. (1779) 14 A' his china pigs are toom.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian xii, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. IV. 256 It wad be better laid out on yon bonny grass holms, than lying useless here in this auld pigg.
1899 J. Spence Shetland Folk-lore 239 I'll creep me up an' kirn da tip o' milk, sae dat du gets a aer o' druttle i' da pig.
1947 J. B. Salmond Toby Jug ii In certain hollows there still lay bits of broken ‘pigs’—pieces of earthenware glazed to brilliant blues, or in a pattern of pink roses.
1980 D. K. Cameron Willie Gavin xii. 122 Often they were preserved for the winter..in a big pig or earthenware jar.
b. pigs and whistles n. fragments, pieces; odds and ends, trivial things. to go to pigs and whistles: to fall into ruin or disrepair. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > of little importance or trivial > collectively
fiddle-faddle1577
fry1587
small beer1620
pigs and whistles1681
trantlesa1689
rattletrap1742
fewtrils1763
fritter1803
nugae1822
small beer1844
trick1877
trivia1902
the world > action or operation > adversity > be in adversity [verb (intransitive)] > fall from prosperous or thriving condition
afalleOE
wanec1000
fallOE
ebba1420
to go backward?a1425
to go down?1440
decay1483
sink?a1513
delapsea1530
reel1529
decline1530
to go backwards1562
rue1576
droop1577
ruina1600
set1607
lapse1641
to lose ground1647
to go to pigs and whistles1794
to come (also go) down in the world1819
to peg out1852
to lose hold, one's balance1877
to go under1879
toboggan1887
slip1930
to turn down1936
1681 S. Colvil Mock Poem ii. 66 Discoursing of their Pigs and Whistles, And strange experiments of Mussels [note, Pigs and whistles, Gimcraks].
1794 Har'st Rig xlviii. 18 For he to pygs and whistles went, And left the land.
1822 J. Galt Sir Andrew Wylie III. xii. 110 The late Laird o'Wylie gaed last year a' to pigs and whistles.
1862 J. W. Carlyle Lett. III. 125 Curious what a curative effect a railway journey has on me always, while you it makes pigs and whistles of!
1890 J. Service Notandums 1 The place a' gaun to pigs and whussles.
1927 D. F. Bruce Dimsie Goes Back viii. 83 She's sure to think the place has gone to pigs and whistles since her generation departed.
2001 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 24 Sept. 24 His life went to pigs and whistles, courtesy of fame and fortune, drink and drugs.
†2. A cinerary urn. Obsolete. rare.Only in translations of Boece.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > disposal of corpse > receptacle for remains > [noun] > cinerary urn
urn1374
pig1531
cinerary urn1753
1531 J. Bellenden tr. H. Boece Chron. Scotl. (1941) II. xiii. xvi. 231 Ane pig, craftelye ingravitt, and certane banys in þe samyn wondin in silk.
a1600 ( W. Stewart tr. H. Boece Bk. Cron. Scotl. (1858) I. 244 Syne all his bodie brint wes untill ass..Syne in ane pig wounderfullie wes wrocht, Tha war put in and to the tempill brocht.
a1600 (?c1535) tr. H. Boece Hist. Scotl. (Mar Lodge) (1946) iii. xx. f. 121 Ane ald sepulture..quharein was twa veschell like laym piggis..replete with powder and ass.
3. An earthenware chimney pot. Now rare or historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > heating or making hot > that which or one who heats > [noun] > a device for heating or warming > devices for heating buildings, rooms, etc. > chimney > chimney-pot
pig1683
pot1785
can1805
chimney-can1805
old wife1823
old woman1829
chimney-pot1830
chimney cap1847
tallboy1884
1683–90 in Proc. Soc. Antiquaries Scotl. (1920) 54 239 To Thomas Rankeillo for Holland piggs to some chimneys.
1688 J. Kincaid Diary in Bk. Old Edinb. Club XXVII. 153 Antymony told me..of fastning of pigs.
1707 in A. W. C. Hallen Acct. Bk. Sir J. Foulis (1894) 466 To the lad helped the pigs in the chimneys to drink..£0.2.0.
1884 Sc. Reader 2 Aug. 139 John Girvan, Sweep, Slater, & Pig-putter-on.
1929 F. M. McNeill Scots Kitchen iv. 46 ‘Pigs in the chimnies’ are chimney-pots.
1996 Daily Record (Nexis) 15 Nov. 14 A new dictionary for Scots builders..reveals a John Gunn is a north-east word for a toilet while a lum pig is a chimney pot.
4. Earthenware as a material; clay; (also) a potsherd or fragment of earthenware. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > clay compositions > baked clay > [noun]
tilea1325
potc1384
tilestonec1425
cloam1659
earthenware1670
pig1808
1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Pig,..Any piece of earthen ware, a potsherd.
1924 J. Taylor in A. B. Harley Sc. Story Recitations 108 Puir folk, of course, are only delf, or pig, or common clay.
1997 Stuart (Florida) News (Nexis) 18 May g3 The term [piggy bank] actually has an interesting origin, often ascribed to potters who referred to the raw clay as pig.
†5. A chamber pot. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > sanitation > privy or latrine > [noun] > chamber-pot, etc.
jordan1402
pissing vessel1440
pisspot1440
urinalc1475
pissing basin1481
piss bowlc1527
chamber vessel?1529
chamber pot1540
pot1568
jordan-pot1577
night-tub1616
looking-glassa1627
water-pot1629
chamber utensil1699
member-mug1699
utensil1699
pot de chambre1777
chanty1788
pig1810
piss bucket1819
chamber1829
jerry1859
po1880
thunder-mug1890
article1922
potty1937
honeypotc1947
totty-pot1966
piss-tin1974
1810 J. Cock Simple Strains 137 [He] stappit baith in Kettie's pig, An' steepit them right weel 'Mang starng, that nicht.
1873 J. Ogg Willie Waly 71 Into my putrid channel At nicht each wifie tooms her pig.
6. An earthenware container used as a hot-water bottle; (also) a stone bed-warmer.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > heating or making hot > that which or one who heats > [noun] > a device for heating or warming > devices for warming bed
bedpan1572
warming-pan1574
froe1594
hot-water bottle1636
damsel1728
nun1728
water bottle1771
hot bottle1836
bottle1857
pig1869
bed-bottle1907
bed-warmer1931
hotty1947
1869 R. Leighton Sc. Words 7 This nicht is cauld, my leddy, wad ye please, To hae a pig i' the bed to warm yer taes?
1874 A. Hislop Bk. Sc. Anecd. 95 Shall I put a pig in your bed to keep you warm?
1924 J. H. Bone Crystal Set 31 Ye canna go tae yer bed wantin' yer pig.
1997 Daily Record (Nexis) 11 Jan. 10 Guests might be asked if they'd like to take a pig to bed... It's the term used by locals for the large river-tumbled boulder they place into the oven for a few minutes, then wrap in a towel, to keep them snug all night long.
B. adj.
Ceramic, earthenware, made of clay. Now rare (historical).
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > clay compositions > baked clay > [adjective] > made of baked clay
earthenc1350
pig1583
figuline1657
testaceous1658
1583 Edinb. Test. XII. f. 286v, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (at cited word) Ane dosane pig quhissillis price iiij s.
1639 Edinb. Test. LIX. f. 83, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (at cited word) Twa Flanderis pig plaittis.
1667 Edinb. Test. LXXIII. f. 107, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (at cited word) Nyne great pig plaitts.
1856 J. Ballantine Poems 9 Whaur wee pig penny horses pranced.
1887 ‘S. Tytler’ Logie Town I. xvi. 171 Lizzie accepted the ‘pig’ dog which resembled Lark.
1932 J. M. Barrie Farewell Miss Julie Logan 45 She..made me keep my feet on her, as if she was one of them pig bottles for toasting the feet of the gentry.
2003 Winston-Salem (N. Carolina) Jrnl. (Nexis) 8 Nov. b2 Frugal people then as now saved cash in kitchen pots and jars. A ‘pygg jar’ was not yet shaped like a pig. But the name persisted as the clay was forgotten.

Compounds

† pig-ass n. Obsolete an ass which draws a cart filled with crockery.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > [noun] > equus asinus (ass) > domesticated ass or donkey > used for specific purpose
pack-ass1643
saddle ass1657
post-ass1696
pig-ass1787
pack-donkey1889
1787 W. Taylor Scots Poems 79 Frae Phoebus' beams ye apes retire, Wi' your Pig-asses.
pig-cart n. a cart filled with crockery for sale.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > cart, carriage, or wagon > cart or wagon for conveying goods > [noun] > types of > wagon or cart for specific articles > crockery for sale
pig-cart1898
1898 Westm. Gaz. 25 Oct. 2/1 Sometimes the clanging of a ‘pig-cart’ bell is heard far down the street.
pig shop n. a crockery shop.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > trading place > place where retail transactions made > [noun] > shop > shops selling other specific goods
jeweller's shop1632
ironmongery1648
ironmonger1673
jeweller1675
news shop1688
print shop1689
Indian house1692
coal shed1718
pamphlet shop1721
lormery1725
drugstore1771
hardware store1777
junk store1777
chandler-shop1782
junk shop1790
music store1794
pot shop1794
finding store1822
marine store1837
picture house1838
paint shop1847
news agency1852
chemist1856
Army and Navy1878
cyclery1886
jumble-shop1893
pig shop1896
Manchester department1905
lot1909
craft shop1911
garden centre1912
pet shop1927
sex shop1949
video store1949
quincaillerie1951
home centre1955
Army-Navy1965
cookshop1967
sound shop1972
bucket-shop1973
1896 ‘I. Maclaren’ Kate Carnegie 226 His father keepit a pig chop [= shop].
a1901 J. B. Salmond Bawbee Bowden (1922) vi. 50 Ye wudda thocht it was ten hundred thoosand erthquakes in a pigshop.
pig-wife n. a woman who deals in crockery.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > selling > seller > sellers of specific things > [noun] > seller of dishes or pots > woman
disheressa1300
pig-wife1787
pot-woman1802
1787 W. Taylor Scots Poems 79 (note) Some ape Poets may be said rather to lead Pig Wives' cripple Asses.
1821 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 423 Already has the ‘Pig Wife's’ early care Mark'd out a station, for her crockery ware.
1951 N. B. Morrison Hidden Fairing iv The old pig-wife who, putting down her heavy burden of china, would have a gossip with Kirsty.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

pigv.

Brit. /pɪɡ/, U.S. /pɪɡ/
Forms: see pig n.1
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: pig n.1
Etymology: < pig n.1
1.
a. intransitive. Of a sow: to give birth, to farrow. Also of a woman: †to give birth (obsolete, chiefly derogatory).In quot. 1770, used in the name of a card game.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > pig > [verb (intransitive)] > give birth
farrow1340
pig?1440
fare1573
tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) iii. 1068 (MED) Monthes iiij ydoon, hit is their [sc. sows'] gyse To pigge.
?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Jii To pygge as a sowe, pourceler.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 687 A Sow which hath once pigged.
1660 Peters Last Will in Harl. Misc. (Park) VII. 135 The bed that Pope Joan pigged in.
1705 Poor Robin Apr. Fruitful weather where Sows Pig, Bitches Puppy, Cats Kitten, and Maids prove with Child.
1770 F. Burney Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1988) I. 121 Mr. Seton & myself declined Playing—I never do but at Pope Joan, my lady's hole or my sow's Pig'd!
1811 R. F. Jones Ann. Astoria (1999) 49 One of our breeding sows has piged & had 8.
1843 C. Waterton Let. 8 Nov. (1955) v. 43 Tom told me this morning that his wife had been very ill during the night. I said, ‘Has she pigged?’
1900 P. Tennant Village Notes 170 She deid the last time she piggit.
1952 G. Raverat Period Piece viii. 150 The Sow is just pigging; she's had seven already.
1999 Kansas City (Missouri) Star (Nexis) 16 Feb. b2 ‘The sows are pigging,’ she said cheerfully.
†b. transitive. Of a sow: to give birth to (piglets). Also in extended use. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > pig > [verb (transitive)] > give birth
farrow?c1225
pig1575
1575 G. Gascoigne Noble Arte Venerie l. 150 When his Dame dothe pigge him, [the boar] hath as many teeth, as euer he will haue whyles he liueth.
1592 T. Nashe Strange Newes sig. C4 This is not halfe the littour of inckehornisme, that those foure pages haue pigd.
1700 Philos. Trans. 1699 (Royal Soc.) 21 432 This Monster was pigged alive; but dyed because it could not Suck.
1760 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 117/1 A large sow..has pigged 21 pigs at one litter.
1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 1194 The litters which are pigged in June..should always be reared.
1870 J. Harris Harris on Pig v. 28 I then contrive to be..near at hand, to take the pigs away as she pigs them.
2. intransitive. colloquial (chiefly British).
a. To huddle, live, or sleep together, esp. in a crowded or disorderly way or in dirty conditions. Frequently with together; occasionally with in. to pig along: to live in a simple, unsophisticated or slovenly fashion (now rare).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > dirty person > behave as dirty person [verb (intransitive)]
slotter1553
pig1637
rubble1637
slaister1756
slattern1851
the world > space > relative position > arrangement or fact of being arranged > state of being gathered together > gather together [verb (intransitive)] > crowd together > in a disorderly manner
felterc1400
shroud1530
huddle1600
pig1637
jug1653
hotter1805
the world > action or operation > behaviour > way of life > lead one's life in specific way [verb (intransitive)] > live from day to day like an animal
to pig along1896
1637 N. Whiting Le Hore di Recreatione 127 Feck, sayes mine hostesse, they shall have a bed With good strong sheets, to pig together in.
1697 J. Vanbrugh Provok'd Wife v. 62 So; Now, you being as dirty and as nasty as my self, We may go Pig together.
1698 E. Ward Poet's Ramble after Riches (new ed.) 15 Why what do'st take me for a Hog.., To here Pig in, amongst such Vermin?
1752 E. Synge Let. 19 Sept. (1996) 473 The Women propose to be all together at Mrs Cary's, and for me they may. But they'll pig finely there.
1857 Ecclesiologist 18 312 The six-and-thirty Irish families who pig in the adjoining alley.
1896 Pall Mall Gaz. Sept. 70 She isn't fit to pig along in the way we have to here.
1939 G. B. Shaw In Good King Charles's Golden Days ii. 112 Give me a skilled trade and eight or ten shillings a week, and you and I, beloved, would pig along more happily than we have ever been able to do as our majesties.
1956 P. Scott Male Child I. i. 27 ‘What happened when I came back?’ ‘Poor Pegs had to pig in in Muriel's spare’.
1995 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman (Nexis) 28 Jan. (Lifestyle section) To pig together (To huddle like pigs in a sty).
b. With it: to live in an untidy or slovenly fashion; to live in cheap or inferior accommodation; to accept a standard of living lower than that to which one is accustomed.
ΚΠ
1819 Countess Spencer Let. 3 Nov. in Corr. Lady Lyttelton (1912) viii. 215 Only that we still keep up that rare and useless custom of washing and swashing, we should pig it as comfortably as they wallow in Italy.
1889 G. Allen Tents of Shem II. xx. 58 You'd have to pig it with the goats and the cattle.
1930 J. Buchan Castle Gay ix. 145 They would have to pig it in a moorland inn.
2003 News of World (Nexis) 29 June They won't be pigging it. There are clean washing facilities, hot food outlets and near on 1,000 portaloos.
3. transitive. To crowd (people) together like pigs. Frequently with together. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > arrangement or fact of being arranged > state of being gathered together > gather together [verb (transitive)] > crowd together
thrumble1513
throng1539
pack1545
serr1562
close1566
frequent1578
thwack1589
contrude1609
crowd1612
serry1639
wedge1720
stuff1728
pig1745
jam1771
condensate1830
wad1850
sardine1895
1745 T. Rebanks Let. 13 Dec. in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. 21 14 I pig'd twenty of them into my hayloft upon straw.
1848 Times 26 Oct. 5/4 I despair of giving you any faint idea of the manner these people are pigged together within their dwellings.
1882 Daily News 20 May 2/2 Women and children were often found in them ‘pigged’ into small rooms.
1911 Times 15 Sept. 10/5 No high standard of life is possible in any sense, when a whole family and often two or three families are pigged together in one room.
4. colloquial.
a. transitive and intransitive. To eat or help oneself to (food) esp. greedily. Cf. hog v.1 7a, 7b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > processes or manners of eating > eat via specific process [verb (transitive)] > eat voraciously
forswallowOE
gulch?c1225
afretea1350
moucha1350
glop1362
gloup1362
forglut1393
worrya1400
globbec1400
forsling1481
slonk1481
franch1519
gull1530
to eat up1535
to swallow up1535
engorge1541
gulp1542
ramp1542
slosh1548
raven1557
slop1575
yolp1579
devour1586
to throw oneself on1592
paunch1599
tire1599
glut1600
batten1604
frample1606
gobbet1607
to make a (also one's) meal on (also upon)a1616
to make a (also one's) meal of1622
gorge1631
demolish1639
gourmanda1657
guttle1685
to gawp up1728
nyam1790
gamp1805
slummock1808
annihilate1815
gollop1823
punish1825
engulf1829
hog1836
scoff1846
brosier1850
to pack away1855
wolf1861
locust1868
wallop1892
guts1934
murder1935
woof1943
pelicana1953
pig1979
1897 Marion (Ohio) Daily Star 17 May 3/5 At dinner he pigged at a table by himself.
1979 G. Swarthout Skeletons 96 That finished dinner for her. But not for me. I pigged everything.
1984 A. Lurie Foreign Affairs (1985) ix. 217 ‘There was quite a lot of food.’ ‘Really? No one offered me any... Pigging it all for themselves, most likely.’
1995 FHM Sept. 57/2 Eats fresh veg, rice, pasta and salads at home, but pigs down rubbish when he's out.
b. intransitive. Originally North American. to pig out: to overindulge esp. by overeating; to gorge oneself on food.An occurrence of the term in 1972 is noted in C. Eble Scenes from Slang (1980) 5 (typescript): I pigged-out at dinner with all that steak, bread and French fries.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > processes or manners of eating > eat via specific process [verb (intransitive)] > eat more than usual or overeat
exceeda1592
to pig out1978
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > processes or manners of eating > eat via specific process [verb (transitive)] > eat more than usual or overeat
to pig out1978
to pork out1979
1978 T. Gifford Glendower Legacy 73 I'm just going to pig out at home.
1981 J. Fonda Workout Bk. (1982) 29 Troy and Vanessa..pig out for days on leftover Halloween candy.
1987 Observer 15 Nov. 10/2 You may not want to ‘pig out’, as the brochure pleasantly puts it, on movies and junk food for two days.
1998 Daily Tel. 29 Dec. 33/3 He has the house to himself and can pig out on unhealthy food and watch videos till he falls asleep.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1OEn.2adj.c1450v.?1440
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