d.1529. Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 233. Then swetely together we ly, As two pygges in a sty.
1621. Jonson, News from the New World [Century]. You should be some dull tradesman by your pig-headed sconce now.
1607. Dekker and Webster, Westward Hoe, v. 3. he bleeds like a pig, for his crown's crack'd.
1678. Cotton, Scoffer Scoft [Works (1725), 185]. Gan. But when I pig'd with mine own Dad, I us'd to make him hopping mad.
1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iv. 6. Now, you being as dirty and as nasty as myself, we may go pig together.
1698. Unnatural Mother [Nares]. By the zide of the wood there is a curious hansom gentlewoman lies as dead as a herring, and bleeds like any stuck pig.
1704. Gentleman Instructed, 537. When reason sleeps extravagance breaks loose; quality and peasantry pig together.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 373. He stared like a stuck pig at my equipment.
c.1780. Tomlinson, Flash Pastoral. And Nancy pigged with me wherever I went.
d.1845. Hood, Tale of a Trumpet. How the Smiths contrived to live and whether The fourteen Murphies all pigg'd together.
1857. Whitty, Fr. of Bohemia, 86. What narrow stairs! How dreadful it is that grandfather will stick to this piggy street.
d.1859. Macaulay, Sir Wm. Temple. But he hardly thinks that the sufferings of a dozen felons pigging together on bare bricks . . . suited to the dignity of history.
18[?]. West. Review [Century). To pig it like the prodigal son.
18[?]. The Engineer [Century]. The working man here is content to pig it, to use an old-country term, in a way that an English workman would not care to do.
1860. George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, i. 3. A thoroughly pig-headed fellow.
1888. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, ii. 4, 1. Brodie (searching). Where's a hat for the Deacon? where's a hat for the Deacon's headache? This place is a piggery.
2. (old).—A policeman, or detective. Also grunter: see Beak. China street pig = a Bow St. officer.—Grose (1785); Vaux (1819).
1821. Egan, Life in London, i. i. Do not frown upon me, but stretch out thine hand to my assistance, thou bashaw of the pigs, and all but beak!
3. (military).—In pl. = The Seventy-Sixth Foot, now the 2nd Batt. West Riding Regiment. [From its badge.] Also The Immortals (q.v.) and The Old Seven and Sixpennies (q.v.).
4. (printers').—A pressman: cf. donkey.
1841. Savage, Dict. s.v.
5. (common).—Sixpence: see Bender, Hog, and Rhino.—B. E. (c.1696); Grose (1785).
6. (Cambridge University).—See Hog, subs., sense 3.
7. (tailors').—An utterly spoiled garment. Also pork.
Colloquial phrases are:—A pig in a poke = a blind bargain: Fr. acheter chat en poche (B. E., c.1696; Grose, 1785; Bee, 1823); to stuff a fat pig in the tail = to give unnecessarily: to take one's pigs (or hogs) to market = to deal, or do business: generally with pretty, fair, fine, or bad, when = a good or bad bargain, to succeed or fail (B. E., c.1696; Grose, 1785); to drive one's pigs (or hogs) to market = to snore (Grose. 1785); to follow like an Anthony pig = to beg, to hang on (Grose, 1785); to get the wrong sow by the ear (or, Am., the wrong pig by the tail) = to make a mistake; when pigs fly = Never:
