hog
- 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.
- 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).
- Nautical. (of a hull) to have less than the proper amount of sheer because of structural weakness; arch.Compare sag(def 6a).
- 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
Examples from the Web for hog
Contemporary Examples
Hand printed posters at the Vance Avenue Market: CHICKEN BACKS, 12½¢ lb.; HOG MAWS, 15¢: RUMPS, 19¢.
Complacency is turned against us as the figure bending over the hog suddenly looks up … and speaks.
After strolling, you can sit outside and eat oysters at Hog Island Oyster Company.
Why is the city once known as hog butcher to the world now offering a bacon martini at Moto?
Why is the city once known as hog butcher to the world now offering it a bacon martini at Moto?
Historical Examples
Hang tight, now—I'm going to beat that horse to the Hog's Back.
Chip, of the Flying UB. M. Bower
He just missed running into Banjo on the Hog's Back by the skin of the teeth.
Chip, of the Flying UB. M. Bower
The top of the "hog's-back" had been flattened, and on it stood M'tela's palace.
The Leopard WomanStewart Edward White
Your chattel is for growing corn, not for corn in a hog's belly.
DustMr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius
Mr. Rockefeller did not discover the hog, but it is considered his by right of resemblance.
The Devil's DictionaryAmbrose Bierce
hog
- 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
- 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
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for hog
n.
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.
v.
"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.