swine
Americannoun
plural
swine-
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
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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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.
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
The last one in 2009, called swine flu, was comparatively mild.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
A herd of pigs at a swine facility once charged at him, forcing him to jump out of the way while the farmhands chuckled.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026
During the flu season that ended in September, 280 children died from flu — the most since the swine flu pandemic season of 2009-10.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 23, 2025
Touch at the first beach, go ashore, and send your ship and crew around to port by sea, while you go inland to the forester, your old friend, loyal keeper of the swine.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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.
