Swine definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (7)

American Heritage Dictionary (2)

noun Any of various omnivorous, even-toed ungulates of the family Suidae, including pigs, hogs, and boars, having a stout body with thick skin, a short neck, and a movable snout.
noun A person regarded as brutish or contemptible.

Century Dictionary (3)

An ungulate non-ruminant quadruped, of the family Suidæ in a broad sense; any hog, pig, sow, or boar; in the plural, these animals collectively. The word is commonly used in the plural, swine, as a collective noun, meaning several individuals of a given species, as of the domestic hog, or several kinds of swinish animals, as the hog, the wart-hog, the peccary, the babirussa, etc. The most important breeds of swine are those originated in England during the present century. Some have been produced by crossing native hogs with China and Italian (Neapolitan) breeds. Among the most prominent are the following: the Berkshires, black pigs, with white on the feet, face, tip of the tail, and occasionally on the arm, and erect ears of medium size; the Essex, black pigs of small to medium size, with small ears at first erect, later drooping; and the Yorkshires, a well-established breed of large and small hogs of white color, resembling the Suffolk breed, also with white skin and small upright ears. Neapolitans represent a breed of rather small Italian swine, seldom bred in the United States. They are described as having a bluish-plum or slaty color, the skin nearly free from hair, and the ears small, standing forward horizontally. The English varieties, especially the Berkshires, are largely bred in the United States, where are also raised a number of native breeds. The Poland-China originated during the present century in Ohio from several breeds, including some so-called China hogs. They are characterized by a dark spotted or black color, small, broad, slightly concave face, and fine, drooping ears. The Duroc-Jersey, of unknown origin, has been bred in New Jersey for many years; they are large red animals with lopped ears. The Chester white originated in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Cheshires and Victorias are white swine, originating in New York State, which do not represent distinct breeds. See cuts under babirussa, boar, Artiodactyla, gyrus, sulcus, mesosternum, peccary, and Potamochærus. Sche brouʒt fram the kychene A scheld of a wylde swynne, Hastelettus in galantyne. Sir Degrevant, l. 1398. We never kill'd so large a swine; so fierce, too, I never met with yet. Fletcher (and another?), Prophetess, i. 3. One great Hogg may doe as much mischief in a Garden as many little Swine. Milton, Eikonoklastes, iv.
A mean, degraded person; a hoggish individual. [Slang.]
Intestinal fever of swine. Same as hog-cholera (which see, under cholera). Compare swine-plague.

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John, Calling Maggie a swine is an uncalled for insult to swine everywhere! — Good As You
They were terribly lean, almost as lean as some I have seen in Spain where the swine are as skinny as Granada beggars. — The Red Horizon
In displays of this kind the pig's head is specially conspicuous, and points to the time when the swine was a favourite sacrificial animal. — Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan
A god Moccus, "swine," was also identified with Mercury, and the swine was a frequent representative of the corn-spirit or of vegetation divinities in Europe. — The Religion of the Ancient Celts
Thus in the Mabinogi_, when Gwydion flees with the swine, he rests each night at a place one of the syllables of which is Moch_, "swine"--an ćtiological myth explaining why places which were once sites of the cult of a swine-god, afterwards worshipped as Gwydion, were so called Gwydion has also a tricky, fraudulent character in the Mabinogi_, and although "in his life there was counsel," yet he had a "vicious muse. — The Religion of the Ancient Celts

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Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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hog · pig · poultry · buffalo · boar · goose · pigeon · ox · antelope · cattle · fox · hare

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old English swīn; see sū- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (1)

from Middle English swine, swyne, swin (both singular and plural), from Anglo-Saxon swīn (plural swīn), a pig, swine, = Old Saxon swīn = OFries. swīn = Middle Dutch swijn, D. zwijn = Middle Low German swīn, Low German swin = Old High German Middle High German swīn, German schwein = Icelandic svīn = Swedish Danish svin = Gothic (Moesogothic) swein, a swine; cf. Polish swinia = Bohemian swine, Russian svineya, a swine (svinka, a pig, svinoi, swinish, etc.); orig. adjectival forms (cf. Polish swini, adjective), like L. suinus (later English suine), of or pertaining to swine; with adjective formative -n, from the form seen in L. sus = Greek σῡς, ὐς, a sow: see sow.

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