swine
Americannoun
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any stout, cloven-hoofed artiodactyl of the Old World family Suidae, having a thick hide sparsely covered with coarse hair, a disklike snout, and an often short, tasseled tail: now of worldwide distribution and hunted or raised for its meat and other products.
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the domestic hog, Sus scrofa.
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a coarse, gross, or brutishly sensual person.
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a contemptible person.
noun
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a coarse or contemptible person
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another name for a pig
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of swine
before 900; Middle English; Old English swīn; cognate with German Schwein hog, Latin suīnus (adj.) porcine; akin to sow 2
Explanation
A swine is a pig or a big ol’ nasty hog. Swine have short legs, thick bodies, and they eat just about anything. If someone acts like a pig, call him a swine. Although it’s old fashioned, the word swine comes in handy if you need another word for hog, like if you’re really into writing poems about pigs. Swine — which is also the plural form, like fish — are common farm animals. Some are eaten as bacon, some are kept as pets. Swine themselves are omnivorous, so they'll eat meat, vegetables, or, well, garbage.
Vocabulary lists containing swine
Milkweed
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A Streetcar Named Desire
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The Wishing Spell
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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:
The other actor whose presence deeply impacted the production, Nolan reports, is Samantha Morton, mesmerizing as Circe, the goddess who changes Odysseus’ men into swine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
No revolutionary, Wood writes, “defended with more vehemence common ordinary people against the aristocracy—‘against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and cloathed like swine and hounds.’
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
There have been nine such declarations, including the Ebola outbreak in 2013, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the swine flu pandemic in 2009.
From MarketWatch ● May 17, 2026
"Right now, sales aren't great, but that's not to do with swine fever, it's because of other factors," he says, pointing to the high cost of living.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2026
Men drove swine and cattle, while others hauled massive blocks of ice for cold storage or dragged handcarts loaded with goods.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Human respiratory physiology is more like that of swines than felines.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2025
Another manager on the brink is Quique Sànchez Flores, reportedly set to be sacked by the ungrateful swines at Watford, with a first top-ten finish in 30 years still on the table.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 30, 2016
The myth of Circe turning the companions of Ulysses into swines shows the religious belief, in ancient Greece, in magical transformation of human beings into animals.
From Greek Women by Carroll, Mitchell
My swines are ill," he informed her, greatly agitated, his fragile English going altogether to pieces in his perturbation; "my inspector writes they perpetually die.
From The Benefactress by Elizabeth
This person professes himself to be of the Mahometan faith, and will not permit swines flesh to be eaten in his dominions.
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.
