pork

[pawrk, pohrk]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR pork ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the flesh of hogs used as food.

Informal. appropriations, appointments, etc., made by the government for political reasons rather than for public benefit, as for public buildings or river improvements.

Origin of pork

1250–1300; Middle English porc < Old French < Latin porcus hog, pig; cognate with farrow¹

Related formspork·ish, pork·like, adjectivepork·less, adjective

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

Related Words for pork

pancetta, rasher, sowbelly, gammon, melon, patronage, payola, perquisite, plum, logrolling, perks

Examples from the Web for pork

Contemporary Examples of pork

Roll the pork over the stuffing, like a jelly roll, until the seam is facing down and the fat back is on top.
Make Carla Hall’s Roasted Pork Loin With Cranberries
Carla Hall
December 24, 2014
While the pork is resting, heat a large, heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat.
Make Carla Hall’s Roasted Pork Loin With Cranberries
Carla Hall
December 24, 2014
Veselka layered its latke with pork goulash, and Toloache added beef short rib chorizo.
I Ate Potato Pancakes Til I Plotzed
Emily Shire
December 17, 2014
Hitchcock's going on about English pork butchers and how best to prepare pork cracklings.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days
David Freeman
December 13, 2014
What Rastetter really seems to care about is pork and politics.
Will Chris Christie Bow to Iowa’s Pork Kings?
Olivia Nuzzi
November 1, 2014

Historical Examples of pork

And, for the unaesthetic but effective Attila, an able fashioner of pork products from Chicago.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
(b) Why is the food value of pork higher than that of other meats?
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
We were out of pork and beef, and our fire-wood was nearly gone.
Ned Myers
James Fenimore Cooper
A leg of pork will require from three to four hours to roast.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches
Eliza Leslie
The pork and the cabbage should be thoroughly done, and tender throughout.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches
Eliza Leslie

British Dictionary definitions for pork

pork

noun

the flesh of pigs used as food

Word Origin for pork

C13: from Old French porc, from Latin porcus pig

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 pork

c.1300 (early 13c. in surname Porkuiller), "flesh of a pig as food," from Old French porc "pig, swine, boar," and directly from Latin porcus "pig, tame swine," from PIE *porko- "young swine" (cf. Umbrian purka; Old Church Slavonic prase "young pig;" Lithuanian parsas "pig;" and Old English fearh, Middle Dutch varken, both from Proto-Germanic *farhaz).

Pork barrel in the literal sense is from 1801, American English; meaning "state's financial resources (available for distribution)" is attested from 1907 (in full, national pork barrel); it was noted as an expression of U.S. President President William Howard Taft:

"Now there is a proposition that we issue $500,000,000 or $1,000,000,000 of bonds for a waterway, and then that we just apportion part to the Mississippi and part to the Atlantic, a part to the Missouri and a part to the Ohio. I am opposed to it. I am opposed to it because it not only smells of the pork barrel, but it will be the pork barrel itself. Let every project stand on its bottom." ["The Outlook," Nov. 6, 1909, quoting Taft]

The magazine article that includes the quote opens with:

We doubt whether any one knows how or when, or from what application of what story, the phrase "the National pork barrel" has come into use. If not a very elegant simile, it is at least an expressive one, and suggests a graphic picture of Congressmen eager for local advantage going, one after another, to the National pork barrel to take away their slices for home consumption.

Pork in this sense is attested from 1862 (cf. figurative use of bacon). Pork chop is attested from 1858. Pork pie is from 1732; pork-pie hat (1855) originally described a woman's style popular c.1855-65, so called for its shape.