Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The skin of a pig.
  • noun Leather made from the skin of a pig.
  • noun Sports A football.
  • noun Informal A saddle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The skin of a pig, especially when prepared for saddlery, binding, or other purposes.
  • noun A saddle.
  • noun A foot-ball.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The skin of a pig, -- used chiefly for making saddles; hence, a colloquial or slang term for a saddle.
  • noun colloq. A football; -- so called because the covering is often made of pigskin.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Leather made from the skin of a pig.
  • noun US, slang A football (see Etymology).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun leather from the skin of swine

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The American (US) football is a direct descendant of the ball used in the game of rugby. The rugby ball originally was made of a pig's bladder with a leather cover; the earliest versions of the leather exterior sometimes were made of pigskin.

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Examples

  • -0/+14So this is where the term pigskin came from.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Digg 2010

  • , -0/+14So this is where the term pigskin came from.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Digg 2010

  • It will be interesting to see how this bookauction goes on Thursday – up for grabs is a rare Chaucer from 1896produced by William Morris, bound in pigskin with 87 woodcuts and illustrated by pre-RaphaeliteEdward Burne-Jones.

    Chaucer under the hammer « Reading Copy 2007

  • Usually pigskin is favored because it is porous, allowing air to circulate.

    Mexican equipales, seated through the ages Zacoalco de Torres 2003

  • Usually pigskin is favored because it is porous, allowing air to circulate.

    Mexican equipales, seated through the ages Zacoalco de Torres 2003

  • The gossip site that has mastered the art of invading other people's privacy - with exclusives on everything from Apple's prototype iPhone 4 to pictures of Brett Favre's, um, "pigskin" - has had its own privacy invaded this weekend.

    Forbes.com: News Kashmir Hill 2010

  • I don't know a field goal from a touchdown, and spend most Super Bowl Sundays wishing a pigskin were a crunchy fried snack.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • And for about a decade, the Patriots owner has been trying to persuade a Jewish country in love with soccer and basketball to play a game involving something called a pigskin.

    Boston.com Top Stories 2011

  • From the time eluding classmates in grade 11 Phys Ed. flag football became too easy and he realized carrying the pigskin was his calling, Larscheid did nothing but produce.

    Canucks Top Stories 2009

  • But now he's goin 'to send for what he calls a' pigskin 'and he's a-goin' to teach us football.

    Janice Day at Poketown Helen Beecher Long

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