hog

views updated May 29 2018

hog / hôg; häg/ • n. 1. a domesticated pig, esp. one over 120 pounds (54 kg) and reared for slaughter. ∎  a feral pig. ∎  a wild animal of the pig family, for example, a warthog. ∎ inf. a greedy person.2. inf. a large, heavy motorcycle.• v. (hogged, hog·ging) 1. [tr.] inf. keep or use all of (something) for oneself in an unfair or selfish way: he never hogged the limelight.2. (with reference to a ship) bend or become bent convex upward along its length as a result either of the hull being supported in the middle and not at the ends (as in a heavy sea) or the vessel’s being loaded more heavily at the ends. Compare with sag.PHRASES: go (the) whole hog inf. do something completely or thoroughly.live high on (or off) the hog inf. have a luxurious lifestyle.DERIVATIVES: hog·ger n.hog·ger·y / ˈhôgərē; ˈhäg-/ n.hog·gish adj.hog·gish·ly adv.hog·like / -ˌlīk/ adj.

hog

views updated May 14 2018

hog a domesticated pig, especially a castrated male reared for slaughter; often taken as a type of undiscriminating greed. The word is recorded from Old English (in form hogg, hocg), perhaps of Celtic origin and related to Welsh hwch and Cornish hoch ‘pig, sow’.
go the whole hog in informal usage, do something completely or thoroughly; of several origins suggested, one interprets hog as the American slang term for a ten cent piece; another refers the idiom to one of William Cowper's poems (1779), which discusses Muslim uncertainty about which parts of the pig are acceptable as food, leading to the ‘whole hog’ being eaten, because of confusion over Muhammad's teaching.
live high on the hog in North American informal usage, have a luxurious lifestyle.

See also the cat, the rat, and Lovell our dog, Rule all England under the hog, every hog has its Martinmas.

hog

views updated Jun 27 2018

hog (esp. castrated) swine OE.: young sheep XIV; coarse or filthy person XV. Late OE. hogg, hocg, of unkn. orig.

hog

views updated May 21 2018

hog See pig