Meaning & use
hog
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Meanings
nouncountableAmerican
A pig, especially a large one raised for meat.
Grammar: Countable: a hog, three hogs; mainly used in American English.
Patterns
- raise hogs
The farmer raises hogs and sells them at the county market.
A hog can weigh over three hundred pounds.
The fair had a contest for the biggest hog.
verbtransitiveinformaldisapproving
To take or use more than your fair share of something, leaving too little for others.
Grammar: Takes an object: hog the remote, hog the bathroom.
Patterns
- hog something
- hog the spotlight
Don't hog the blanket; I'm freezing.
One driver hogged the middle lane on the highway.
He hogs the conversation at every dinner.
nouncountableinformaldisapproving
A person who is greedy or selfish, especially about something in particular.
Grammar: Informal and disapproving; usually with another word: a road hog.
Patterns
- a road hog
- a camera hog
Nobody likes a road hog who blocks the fast lane.
My brother is a bathroom hog and takes forever in the morning.
She was a camera hog who jumped into every photo.
Word forms
| plural | hogs |
|---|---|
| third person singular | hogs |
| past tense | hogged |
| past participle | hogged |
| -ing form | hogging |
Common combinations
- hog the spotlight
- The lead singer hogged the spotlight all night.
- road hog
- A road hog cut in front of us.
- go whole hog
- We decided to go whole hog and book the best hotel.
- hog the road
- A huge truck hogged the road on the narrow bend.
- hog the blanket
- My dog hogs the blanket on cold nights.
Synonyms and how they differ
- monopolize
- Monopolize is more formal and suggests taking complete control, while hog is casual and more critical.
- corner
- Corner means to take control of a supply or a market, a narrower and more business-like idea.
- pig
- Pig as a noun is a harsher insult for a greedy person, and rude if said to someone.
- dominate
- Dominate focuses on having the most power or attention, not on selfishly taking more than your share.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: hog or hag?
hog vs hag
Hag is an insulting word for an ugly or unpleasant old woman and is unrelated to hog.
Practice
Please don't ____ the remote control; it's someone else's turn to choose.
Choose one answer.
To hog something means to keep more than your fair share. Hold would not suggest selfishness, and host and hoist do not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hog”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.