Meaning & use
swine
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Meanings
nouncountableformalold-fashioned
A pig, especially when meant as a farm animal or in a scientific or technical setting.
Grammar: The plural is also swine: three swine, never swines in this sense.
The farmer kept a herd of swine on the hillside.
Swine flu spread widely in 2009.
Veterinarians recommended new feed for the swine.
nouncountableinformaldisapprovingold-fashioned
A person who is cruel, greedy or very unpleasant, used as a strong insult.
Grammar: Plural is swine or swines; it is a harsh insult and nowadays sounds dated.
Patterns
- a swine to someone
In the old film, the landlord was a swine who threw families into the street.
She called her ex a swine after he lied to her.
It was a swine of a trick to play on a friend.
Word forms
| plural | swine |
|---|
Common combinations
- swine flu
- The school closed for a week because of swine flu.
- a herd of swine
- A herd of swine rooted through the mud.
- raise swine
- Many families in the valley raise swine for pork.
- swine fever
- African swine fever caused huge losses on farms.
- an absolute swine
- He was an absolute swine to his staff.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pig
- Pig is the normal everyday word for the animal and also an insult, while swine sounds more formal or old-fashioned.
- hog
- Hog usually means a large, fully grown pig raised for meat, in American farm talk.
- brute
- Brute stresses violence or cruelty in a person, not greed or nastiness in general.
- scoundrel
- Scoundrel suggests dishonesty and sounds more theatrical and less crude than swine.
Word family
Commonly confused: swine or swain?
swine vs swain
A swain is an old-fashioned word for a country boy or a young male admirer; it sounds like swine in some accents but has no connection to pigs.
Practice
Which use of swine is an insult aimed at a person?
Choose one answer.
In the third sentence swine describes a contemptible person. In the others it simply means pigs, in a technical or farming sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “swine”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.