Meaning & use
piggy bank
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Meanings
nouncountable
A small container, often shaped like a pig, with a slit on top for saving coins.
Grammar: Countable: say a piggy bank or two piggy banks.
Patterns
- put something in a piggy bank
- save something in a piggy bank
- break open a piggy bank
She keeps her allowance in a pink piggy bank on the shelf.
He shook the piggy bank to hear how many coins were inside.
We bought a piggy bank so the kids could save up for a bike.
nounsingularfigurative
A store of money kept for a future purpose, especially a small one.
Grammar: Often used figuratively in phrases like dip into the piggy bank; the plural is rare in this sense.
Patterns
- dip into the piggy bank
- raid the piggy bank
- the country's piggy bank
The city dipped into its piggy bank to pay for new streetlights.
After the car broke down, they had to raid the piggy bank.
Investors treat the fund as a piggy bank for slow years.
Word forms
| plural | piggy banks |
|---|
Common combinations
- put money in a piggy bank
- Every Friday he puts a few coins in his piggy bank.
- a full piggy bank
- Her piggy bank was so full that the lid would not close.
- shake a piggy bank
- The children shook the piggy bank to guess how much was in it.
- break a piggy bank
- You have to break a piggy bank to get the coins out.
- a ceramic piggy bank
- Grandma gave him a ceramic piggy bank painted like a football.
Synonyms and how they differ
- money box
- A more general British term for any small box for coins; it does not have to look like a pig.
- savings
- Refers to the money itself rather than the container; use it when you mean the amount saved, not the object.
Word family
- piggy noun
- A child's word for a pig, and the word that gave the bank its name.
Commonly confused: piggy bank or pigpen?
piggy bank vs pigpen
A pigpen is a fenced area where real pigs are kept; a piggy bank is only a coin container, usually made of ceramic or plastic.
Practice
Which sentence uses "piggy bank" correctly?
Choose one answer.
A piggy bank is a small coin container, so dropping a coin into it fits. Option A fails because a bank account for college is a savings account, not a piggy bank; option C describes a pigpen; option D wrongly uses the noun as a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “piggy bank”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.