Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Resembling or befitting swine.
- adjective Bestial or brutish.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Befitting swine; like swine; gross; hoggish; brutal; beastly: as, a swinish drunkard or sot.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to swine; befitting swine; like swine; hoggish; gross; beasty.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Like a
pig , resembling aswine ;gluttonous ,coarse ,debased .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective resembling swine; coarsely gluttonous or greedy
- adjective ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Burke's phrase of "the swinish multitude," applied to mobs, was then in every body's mouth; and, accordingly, after my brother had recovered from his first astonishment at this audacious mutiny, he made us several sweeping bows that looked very much like tentative rehearsals of a sweeping _fusillade_, and then addressed us in a very brief speech, of which we could distinguish the words _pearls_ and _swinish multitude_, but uttered in a very low key, perhaps out of some lurking consideration for the two young strangers.
Autobiographical Sketches Thomas De Quincey 1822
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While the foreigner speaks and writes of superstition, of heathenism, of abominable rites now passing away, the native Hindu press is equally emphatic in its condemnation of what it calls the swinish indulgence of the Anglo-Saxon, his beer-drinking and his gluttony, his craze for money and material power, his disgust at philosophy and all intellectual aspiration, his half-savage love for the chase and the destruction of animal life.
Oriental Religions and Christianity A Course of Lectures Delivered on the Ely Foundation Before the Students of Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1891 Frank F. Ellinwood
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I abandoned myself to the life, and developed the misconception that the secret of John Barleycorn lay in going on mad drunks, rising through the successive stages that only an iron constitution could endure to final stupefaction and swinish unconsciousness.
Chapter 12 2010
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[UK Parliament, 1741-2] (1c) [...] among all manner of bovine, swinish and feathered cattle.
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Martin SkeggWilliam Morris spoke of catering "to the swinish luxury of the rich", something that the five-star hotel has been doing since the words Savoy and Ritz entered the lexicon as bywords for opulence.
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The swinish drunkenness in which I had lived for months (this was accompanied by the sense of degradation and the old feeling of conviction of sin) was the last and best, and I could see for myself what it was worth.
Chapter 12 2010
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Martin SkeggWilliam Morris spoke of catering "to the swinish luxury of the rich", something that the five-star hotel has been doing since the words Savoy and Ritz entered the lexicon as bywords for opulence.
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[UK Parliament, 1741-2] (1c) [...] among all manner of bovine, swinish and feathered cattle.
What’s the singular form of ‘cattle’? « Motivated Grammar 2010
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And yet the car was apparently pretty easy to drive—according to the lucky, swinish few who have driven them.
The Best Sports Car, and Why to Skip It Dan Neil 2011
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And you can bet that 37% reflects a lot of women who are browbeaten by their swinish husbands into liking Limbaugh.
Think Progress » Rush Limbaugh: ‘I love the women’s movement — especially when walking behind it.’ 2010
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