swill

[ swil ]
See synonyms for: swillswilledswilling on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. liquid or partly liquid food for animals, especially kitchen refuse given to swine; hogwash.

  2. kitchen refuse in general; garbage.

  1. any liquid mess, waste, or refuse; slop.

  2. a deep draught of liquor.

  3. contemptibly worthless utterance or writing; drivel.

verb (used without object)
  1. to drink greedily or excessively.

verb (used with object)
  1. to drink (something) greedily or to excess; guzzle.

  2. to feed (animals) with swill: to swill hogs.

  1. Chiefly British. to wash by rinsing or flooding with water.

Origin of swill

1
First recorded before 900; Middle English verb swilen “to wash, swirl,”Old English swilian, swillan

Other words from swill

  • swiller, noun
  • un·swilled, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use swill in a sentence

  • He could have spent his nights thinking up new business tricks, instead of swilling whiskey.

    The Day Time Stopped Moving | Bradner Buckner
  • Think of what every fathead princeling and beer-swilling ritter from here to Basel would say!

    Joan of the Sword Hand | S(amuel) R(utherford) Crockett
  • He sees a huge house, all these bottles; us swilling them down; perhaps he's got a starving wife, or consumptive kids.

  • He thinks he can use my place to fall back on when he can't go any longer, to fix him up to do some more swilling later on.

    Twelve Men | Theodore Dreiser
  • He stood on top of a table and faced his crew of pirates who were sitting about swilling large cups of rocket juice.

British Dictionary definitions for swill

swill

/ (swɪl) /


verb
  1. to drink large quantities of (liquid, esp alcoholic drink); guzzle

  2. (tr often foll by out) mainly British to drench or rinse in large amounts of water

  1. (tr) to feed swill to (pigs, etc)

noun
  1. wet feed, esp for pigs, consisting of kitchen waste, skimmed milk, etc

  2. garbage or refuse, esp from a kitchen

  1. a deep draught of drink, esp beer

  2. any liquid mess

  3. the act of swilling

Origin of swill

1
Old English swilian to wash out

Derived forms of swill

  • swiller, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012