hog

[hawg, hog]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hog ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a hoofed mammal of the family Suidae, order Artiodactyla, comprising boars and swine.

a domesticated swine weighing 120 pounds (54 kg) or more, raised for market.

a selfish, gluttonous, or filthy person.

Slang.

a large, heavy motorcycle.
an impressively large luxury automobile.

Also hogg, hogget. British.

a sheep about one year old that has not been shorn.
the wool shorn from such a sheep.
any of several other domestic animals, as a bullock, that are one year old.

Railroads Slang. a locomotive.

a machine for shredding wood.

Curling. a stone that stops before reaching the hog score.

verb (used with object), hogged, hog·ging.

to appropriate selfishly; take more than one's share of.

to arch (the back) upward like that of a hog.

roach³(def 3).

(in machine-shop practice) to cut deeply into (a metal bar or slab) to reduce it to a shape suitable for final machining.

to shred (a piece of wood).

verb (used without object), hogged, hog·ging.

Nautical. (of a hull) to have less than the proper amount of sheer because of structural weakness; arch.Compare sag(def 6a).

Idioms

go the whole hog, to proceed or indulge completely and unreservedly: We went the whole hog and took a cruise around the world.Also go whole hog.

live high off/on the hog, to be in prosperous circumstances.Also eat high off the hog.

Origin of hog

1300–50; Middle English; compare Old English hogg- in place-names; perhaps < Celtic; compare Welsh hwch, Cornish hogh swine

Related formshog·like, adjectiveun·hogged, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for hog

swine, boar, piglet, pig, monopolize, sow, razorback, shoat, porker, piggy, warthog, epicure, gourmand, gorger, cormorant

Examples from the Web for hog

Contemporary Examples of hog

Hand printed posters at the Vance Avenue Market: CHICKEN BACKS, 12½¢ lb.; HOG MAWS, 15¢: RUMPS, 19¢.
Stanley Booth on the Life and Hard Times of Blues Genius Furry Lewis
Stanley Booth
June 7, 2014
Complacency is turned against us as the figure bending over the hog suddenly looks up … and speaks.
‘The Walking Dead’: Season 4 Premiere Reminds Us Why We Love This Show
Melissa Leon
October 14, 2013
After strolling, you can sit outside and eat oysters at Hog Island Oyster Company.
Fresh Picks
Alfred Portale
August 31, 2011
Why is the city once known as hog butcher to the world now offering a bacon martini at Moto?
Why Chicago Is America's Hottest City
The Daily Beast
February 28, 2011
Why is the city once known as hog butcher to the world now offering it a bacon martini at Moto?
Why Chicago Is Now America's Hottest City
Raymond Sokolov
February 28, 2011

Historical Examples of hog

Hang tight, now—I'm going to beat that horse to the Hog's Back.
Chip, of the Flying U
B. M. Bower
He just missed running into Banjo on the Hog's Back by the skin of the teeth.
Chip, of the Flying U
B. M. Bower
The top of the "hog's-back" had been flattened, and on it stood M'tela's palace.
The Leopard Woman
Stewart Edward White
Your chattel is for growing corn, not for corn in a hog's belly.
Dust
Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius
Mr. Rockefeller did not discover the hog, but it is considered his by right of resemblance.
The Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce

British Dictionary definitions for hog

hog

noun

a domesticated pig, esp a castrated male weighing more than 102 kg

US and Canadian any artiodactyl mammal of the family Suidae; pig

Also: hogg British dialect, Australian and NZ another name for hogget

informal a selfish, greedy, or slovenly person

nautical a stiff brush, for scraping a vessel's bottom

nautical the amount or extent to which a vessel is hoggedCompare sag (def. 6)

another word for camber (def. 4)

slang, mainly US a large powerful motorcycle

go the whole hog informal to do something thoroughly or unreservedlyif you are redecorating one room, why not go the whole hog and paint the entire house?

live high on the hog or live high off the hog informal, mainly US to have an extravagant lifestyle

verb hogs, hogging or hogged (tr)

slang to take more than one's share of

to arch (the back) like a hog

to cut (the mane) of (a horse) very short

Derived Formshogger, nounhoglike, adjective

Word Origin for hog

Old English hogg, from Celtic; compare Cornish hoch

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

Word Origin and History for hog

late 12c. (implied in hogaster), "swine reared for slaughter" (usually about a year old), also used by stockmen for "young sheep" (mid-14c.) and for "horse older than one year," suggesting the original sense had something to do with an age, not a type of animal. Not evidenced in Old English, but it may have existed. Possibility of British Celtic origin {Watkins, etc.] is regarded by OED as "improbable." Figurative sense of "gluttonous person" is first recorded early 15c. Meaning "Harley-Davidson motorcycle" is attested from 1967.

To go hog wild is from 1904. Hog in armor "awkward or clumsy person in ill-fitting attire" is from 1650s. Phrase to go the whole hog (1828) is sometimes said to be from the butcher shop option of buying the whole slaughtered animal (at a discount) rather than just the choice bits. But it is perhaps rather from the story (recorded in English from 1779) of Muslim sophists, forbidden by the Quran from eating a certain unnamed part of the hog, who debated which part was intended and managed to exempt the whole of it from the prohibition.

"to appropriate greedily," U.S. slang, 1884 (first attested in "Huck Finn"), from hog (n.). Related: Hogged; hogging.

Idioms and Phrases with hog

hog

see go hog wild; go whole hog; high off the hog; road hog.