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You Can Put Lipstick on a Pig, But It's Still a Pig

Meaning: To suggest that you can dress up a situation or issue to make it appear more appealing but that you cannot fundamentally change it.

Origin: An idiom that seems to have entered the English language post-1880 (as the word lipstick first appeared at this time). The first record of a link between pigs and lipstick appeared in 1926 when the Los Angeles Times ran an article that included the phrase, "most of us know as much of history as a pig does of lipsticks."

Buy a Pig in a Poke

Meaning: A phrase suggesting something is not everything it was supposed to be.

Origin:  This one hearkens back to a switcheroo scam from the Middle Ages. Apparently meat was scare but dogs and cats and rats were not. Enterprising ne’er-do-wells would sell a closed sack of meat to hungry and unsuspecting customers claiming that it contained a suckling pig when in reality it was just Fido or Fifi. Ick. Nevertheless, this is just a colorful way to say caveat emptor — buyer beware!

When Pigs Fly

Meaning: That something is implausible.

Origin: Often attributed to an English-Latin dictionary published in 1616 and written by John Withals. The expression "Pigs fly in the ayre with their tayles forward." A variation of the more recently used idiom today.

Sweat Like a Pig

Meaning: That a person is sweating profusely.

 

Origin: The origin of this idiom is difficult to source. It is strange to include a pig's reference in this phrase, as pigs don't have any sweat glands and cannot perspire in this way. Some believe that this idiom stems from the smelter of pig iron, which at a critical stage of manufacture, when cool enough to transport, "sweats."

In a Pigs Eye (or Ear)

Meaning: A statement of disbelief. To be scornful.

Origin: The origins of this expression are a little vague. It is understood to have entered the everyday language in the USA during the 19th century, with the Oxford English Dictionary endorsing the view that it is chiefly an expression used in North America and Australia. Some people believe that there is a reference to the fact that pigs have small eyes.

Happy as a Pig in Mud (or slop, or a puddle, or muck) 

Meaning: That a person is as happy as they can be.

Origin: A British idiom thought to date back to circa 1870

Pigs In Clover (Happy as)

Meaning: People who have more money than manners. Sometimes said when expressing happiness.

Origin: Dates back to the early 1700s. A version of this arose during the 1900s in America, "rolling in clover." With the meaning of living well.

To Go Hog Wild

Meaning: That someone is behaving wildly. Excessively enthusiastic.

Pigging It or Pigging Out

Meaning: To suggest that a person's living conditions are a mess and that they live like a pig. Sometimes said to indicate a person is over-eating.

You Cannot Make a Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear

Meaning: It is impossible to make something valuable out of inferior materials.

Origin: Commonly accepted that this phrase had its roots in Scotland during the late 17th century when initially a version of the words meant to draw a sword from its scabbard. However, by the late 1700s, Samuel Foote (actor and dramatist) wrote: "Who can make a silk purse of a sow's ear?" with the same meaning as inferred today.

Like Pigs to the Slaughter

Meaning: That something is being done obediently and in large numbers. Without concern for the danger ahead

Origin: References how large groups of animals, namely pigs and sheep, are rounded up and herded into slaughterhouses (hopefully oblivious to what they are facing).

Like a Pig on Ice

Meaning: To stumble, be unsteady, or clumsy. Often said in good humor.

Origin: Commonly accepted that this idiom references the actions of a pig left stranded on the ice.

Casting Pearls Before Swine

Meaning: That something or an object is useless.

Origin: This expression is from the Bible, Mathew 7:6. Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

High on the Hog

Meaning: That someone is living a life of luxury.

The expression is related to cuts of pork, with the most popular being from the upper part of the pig. Consequently, these cost more and were more in keeping with upper-class budgets. In contrast, cuts of pork from the pig's underbelly were more affordable and within the budgets of lower-class families.

A Hog, or To Hog Something

Meaning: An idiom indicating that a person selfishly took more than their share. If doing this while driving….a person becomes a Road Hog

As Sick as a Pig

Meaning: An idiom indicating that a person is thoroughly disappointed or annoyed, or sometimes actually ill.

Origin: Some contention exists over the source of this idiom, the most literal of these being an agricultural expression said by farmers and vets relating to the practice of letting animals run on a piece of land for an extended time. This had the unfortunate effect of allowing parasites to build up in the soil. Consequently, pigs would suffer health issues and be prone to illness.

In a Pig's Whisper

Meaning: Something that happened very quickly.

Origin: Evidence of this idiom dates as far back as 1780 when O'Keeffe, J. wrote an Irish play called Tony Lumpkin in Town; within this play is the line: "I'll be with them in a pig's whisper."

Wrestle With a Pig

Meaning: That your act of assistance is futile. The person you are attempting to help enjoys and encourages their struggle too much.

Origin: Many famous people from history seem to have this phrase attributed to them, Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain, to name just two. However, the most commonly accepted source of this quote is George Bernard Shaw, who reputedly said: "I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it."

 

Male-chauvinist Pig

Meaning: A term of abuse. Describes a man who is aggressive to, or domineering of, women.

Origin: This is an expression coined by the Women's lib movement

Squeal Like a Stuck Pig

Meaning: That someone made a fuss about nothing.

Origin: Commonly understood to have originated from India in the 1820s, when British cavalrymen would participate in the act (some say sport) of hunting wild pigs. The pigs would often squeal when struck by the cavalry officers' lances.

To Bleed Like a Stuck Pig

Meaning: That a person is bleeding profusely. A version of the above idiom.

Happy as a dead pig in the sunshine

Meaning: having a happy appearance with a smile

 

Origin: Apparently when a pig dies, as its carcass bakes in the sun, its little piggy lips actually begin to shrink back from its teeth producing a gruesome grin.

He (or she) looks like the north end of a southbound pig.

Meaning: a person is ugly

Origin: unknown

Useless as teats on a boar hog

Meaning: Something that has no value.

Origin: A boar is a male pig. So for him to have mammaries would be, well, useless.

Her butt looks like two pigs fighting in a sack

Meaning: Imagery. That’s what I love the most about some idioms. If you’re not seeing this in your mind right now, there’s something wrong with you and you should go lie down until it passes.

Pig

Multiple meanings: a glutton, a dirty or slovenly person, an ugly or fat person, a police officer

Like Stink On A Pig

Meaning: Rapidly, vigorously or intensely

Origin: unknown

Couldn’t Stop A Pig In A Passage

Meaning: bow legged. In other words, the pig had room to squeeze between someone’s legs

Origin: unknown

Everything but the Squeal

Meaning: To suggest that nothing goes to waste.

Origin: Commonly accepted that this expression originated in the 1860s and was something said in pork processing plants when reminding staff that nothing should go to waste.

A pigsty

Meaning: a place is messy and/or dirty

Origin: unknown

Bring Home The Bacon

Meaning: to generate income or be successful. Get the job done

Origin: Though you might be tempted to believe this phrase originated from a time when people literally brought home bacon, it actually traces back to 12th-century England. A church in the town of Dunmow offered a side of bacon to any man who could swear he had not quarreled with his wife for a year and a day

 

Photo Credit Jocefina