hog
Americannoun
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hogs
plural
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a hoofed mammal of the Old World family Suidae, order Artiodactyla, comprising boars and swine.
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a domesticated swine weighing 120 pounds (54 kilograms) or more, raised for market.
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a selfish, gluttonous, or filthy person.
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Slang.
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a large, heavy motorcycle.
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an impressively large luxury automobile.
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British. Also hogg,
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a sheep about one year old that has not been shorn.
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the wool shorn from such a sheep.
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any of several other domestic animals, as a bullock, that are one year old.
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Railroads Slang. a locomotive.
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a machine for shredding wood.
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Curling. a stone that stops before reaching the hog score.
verb (used with object)
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hogs,
present (3rd person singular)
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hogged,
past participle, past
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hogging
present participle
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to appropriate selfishly; take more than one's share of.
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to arch (the back) upward like that of a hog.
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(in machine-shop practice) to cut deeply into (a metal bar or slab) to reduce it to a shape suitable for final machining.
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to shred (a piece of wood).
verb (used without object)
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hogs,
present (3rd person singular)
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hogged,
past participle, past
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hogging
present participle
idioms
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live high off / on the hog, to be in prosperous circumstances. Also eat high off the hog.
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go the whole hog. see whole hog. Also go whole hog.
noun
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a domesticated pig, esp a castrated male weighing more than 102 kg
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any artiodactyl mammal of the family Suidae; pig
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Also: hogg. dialect another name for hogget
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informal a selfish, greedy, or slovenly person
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nautical a stiff brush, for scraping a vessel's bottom
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nautical the amount or extent to which a vessel is hogged Compare sag
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another word for camber
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slang a large powerful motorcycle
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informal to do something thoroughly or unreservedly
if you are redecorating one room, why not go the whole hog and paint the entire house?
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informal to have an extravagant lifestyle
verb
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slang to take more than one's share of
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to arch (the back) like a hog
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to cut (the mane) of (a horse) very short
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hogsimple
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hogssimple
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have hoggedperfect
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has hoggedperfect
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am hoggingprogressive
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are hoggingprogressive
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is hoggingprogressive
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have been hoggingperfect progressive
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has been hoggingperfect progressive
Past
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hoggedsimple
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had hoggedperfect
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was hoggingprogressive
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were hoggingprogressive
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had been hoggingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hog
First recorded before 1100; Middle English hoge, Old English hogg; further origin uncertain; perhaps from Celtic; compare Welsh hwch, Cornish hogh “swine”
Explanation
A hog is a pig that's kept on a farm. You can also use the word as a verb, like when you act like a greedy hog. Try not to hog the pie, and stick to your allotted portion. Though the primary definition of a hog is "domesticated pig," it sometimes refers to wild swine, including feral pigs and warthogs. Hogs are fairly intelligent and social animals, and some of their tendencies are dog-like, including wagging their tails to express pleasure. If your brother shoves cake in his mouth, you might call him a hog, or say, "Hey, don't hog the cake!" Hog originally referred to a one year old pig, but also a horse or sheep of a similar age. "Huckleberry Finn" contains the first known use of hog as a verb meaning "consume greedily."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Fishmeal helped fuel the post-World War II expansion of industrial chicken and hog farming, particularly in Europe and the United States.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Also like many vets, he loves guns, and is excited, post-recovery, to “go hog hunting.”
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
That’s no mean feat, but it also shows that you live high off the hog.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
China is the world’s largest soybean importer, relying heavily on imports to feed its massive hog and poultry industries.
From Barron's ● May 12, 2026
Of course my feet are like hog leather from these twelve mostly barefoot years of my life.
From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads
AI data centers, like crypto miners before them, are energy hogs.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
The company said the plant will source about all of its hogs from nearby farmers in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
For example, non-native feral hogs are now major predators of loggerhead sea turtle eggs along the Georgia coast, USA, while coyotes in eastern North America are expanding onto coastal barrier islands, altering those ecosystems.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 8, 2026
Companies are snapping up Vernon properties and upgrading them, adding advanced cooling systems to old office buildings and filling a shuttered slaughterhouse that once housed hogs, with advanced chips.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025
I laugh, remembering the teeming streets of London, with carriages and horses and people and hogs all vying for space on the cobblestones.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
Maryland is not exactly known for its wines—Virginia has hogged the spotlight in the region for decades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
While the headlines for markets are currently hogged by events in the Middle East, over the longer term AI-induced inflation might prove to be the more critical share-price driver.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 2, 2026
Mendis was on 92 heading into the final over, but the strike stayed away from him as Dunith Wellalage hogged the limelight.
From Barron's ● Jan. 22, 2026
Love Is All Around is a member of a very small club of hits that hogged the charts in the 1990s to the point many couldn't listen to them any more.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2024
Theo, with whom I have never had a conversation about matters more pressing than which of our fellow boarders hogged all the hot water.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Members of Earth, Wind & Fire had been frustrated with White, accusing him of hogging the bulk of the profits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
He worried that a data center would destroy his peace and quiet, bringing noise and light pollution and hogging the area’s water and electricity.
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2025
Self-described haters say entitled cabana crews are hogging public space and disrespecting other beachgoers.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2025
“It’s kind of like the baby boomers are hogging political positions,” he said.
From Slate ● Nov. 5, 2024
Despite my efforts at hogging the window, I feel myself getting shoved aside as Jude squeezes her head and then her shoulders out beside mine until we’re a two-headed hydra.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
