swine
[swahyn]
- 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.Compare hog, pig1, wild boar.
- the domestic hog, Sus scrofa.
- a coarse, gross, or brutishly sensual person.
- a contemptible person.
Show More
Origin of swine
before 900; Middle English; Old English swīn; cognate with German Schwein hog, Latin suīnus (adj.) porcine; akin to sow2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for swine
Contemporary Examples
Gerald Ford and the swine flu pandemic that never happened in 1976 is a cautionary tale that government action can backfire.
Everyone in the mountains knew Hadji Murad, and how he slew the Russian swine.
A few years ago, this Joe Biden warned people not to ride on aircraft or subways out of fear of contracting “swine flu.”
Some of the people who were inside there said: “Here come the swine,” and swore and threw stones and things at them.
‘Soldaten: Secret WWII Transcripts of German POWs’ by Soenke Neitzel & Harald WelzerSönke Neitzel, Harald Welzer
September 24, 2012
She claimed that another group of fascists harassed her while she was driving her cab one night and called her a “Russian swine.”
Historical Examples
Swine were the natural companions of the prodigal, and the sooner he was with them the better!
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
So Pryderi gave Gwyd the swine, and he quickly drove them off.
Welsh Fairy TalesWilliam Elliott Griffis
As to your pigs and baboons, you are yourself a pig, and you make my writings a sport of other swine.
TheaetetusPlato
He had been ruminating on Gubblum's observation about the swine ring.
A Son of HagarSir Hall Caine
But Jabez had not forgotten the similitude of the swine ring.
A Son of HagarSir Hall Caine
swine
- plural swines a coarse or contemptible person
- plural swine another name for a pig
Show More
Word Origin
Old English swīn; related to Old Norse svīn, Gothic swein, Latin suīnus relating to swine
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 swine
n.
Old English swin "pig, hog," from Proto-Germanic *swinan (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian Middle Low German, Old High German swin, Middle Dutch swijn, Dutch zwijn, German Schwein), neuter adjective (with suffix *-ino-) from PIE *su- (see sow (n.)). The native word, largely ousted by pig. Applied to persons from late 14c. Phrase pearls before swine (mid-14c.) is from Matt. vii:6; an early English formation of it was:
Ne ge ne wurpen eowre meregrotu toforan eo wrum swynon. [c.1000]
The Latin word was confused in French with marguerite "daisy" (the "pearl" of the field), and in Dutch the expression became "roses before swine."
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with swine
swine
see cast pearls before swine.
Show More
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.