Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a pig-butcher.

1904		Montana News (Lewistown, MT) 24 Aug. n.p.: Political swill made as a bi-product from the hog by [...] the Chicago pig-sticker. Ye gods!
1909		Maui News (Wailuku, HI) 12 June 4/2: A pig sticker went suddenly insane today and killed five fellow workmen.
1916		C. Sandburg ‘Halstead Street Car’ Chicago Poems 4: Try with your pencils for these crooked faces, / That pig-sticker in one corner—his mouth— / That overall factory girl—her loose cheeks.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 260: The sons of a Polish baker and a mulatto pigsticker crouched across the canvas from each other.

2. (also pig stabber) any form of sharpened, stabbing weapon, e.g. a lance, a bayonet, a large knife etc.

1870		C.G. Leland ‘The First Edition of Breitmann’ in Hans Breitmann in Church 127: Den out he flashed his pig-sticker, / Und mit looks of drementous gloom, / Rooshed vildly into de pattle / Dat vas ragin round de room.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 30 Nov. 12/4: ‘I can do with you now, you devil! You’ve lost your pig-sticker, Tiger!’.
1918		C.J. Swan My Company 129: The black man lifted the pigsticker from Charlies’s stomach and came to ‘Present Arms.’.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects (1990) 155: Pig Stabber.
1931		Western Mail (Perth) 19 Feb. 2/1: A big buck Jerry was bearin’ down on me with ’is pig-sticker.
1939		‘Citadel Gloss.’ in AS XIV:1 Feb. 29/2: pigsticker, n. Cadet officer’s sword.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 4: Firing? Nothing! The pig-stickers was out. It was knives, me boys, bayonets!
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 71: Let’s see the shiv [...] The pigsticker, the switchblade, the knife.
1966		(con. 1954) J. McGrath Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun II ii: (He stops and looks at the bayonet, which is still on the end of his rifle.) Pig-sticker!
1979		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 163: I hold the big jungle knife inches from Animal Mother’s face [...] Cowboy continues to eat. ‘Stow that pig-sticker, Joker.’.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 88: Pig Sticker A knife or a weapon that is used to stab someone.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 362: He eased a homemade pig-sticker - sharpened screwdriver taped to sawn-off broom handle - out of his blues.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘Relax, cheech [...] You can take your hand off the pigsticker’.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 142: ‘[L]et go of that pigsticker, coon-ass. And hands up’.

3. a general term of abuse.

1977

Maledicta 1 (Summer) 16: Something stronger is searched for, and many people find it in sexual accusations: that the other person is impotent, a masturbator, and especially that he is a homosexual or has sexual relations with animals: he is a duck-fucker or a pig-sticker.