Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US tramp) a railroad engineer.

1914		B.T. Harvey ‘Addenda –The Northwest’ in DN IV:ii 163: hogshead, n. An engineer of a locomotive.
1929		V.W. Saul ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 341: Hog head—An engineer on the railroad.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 27: It is not necessary for the hobo ever to meet the engineer of the train, known among our kind as the ‘hogger,’ or ‘hoghead’.
1931		Illinois Central Mag. June 30/2: To the initiated, a ‘tallow-pit’ is a locomotive fireman and a ‘hoghead’ is the engineer [DA].
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 327: I relayed on to the hoghead and yelled, ‘All right, let’s have it’.
1948		Railway Clerk June 320/2: I recall once knowing a hoghead by th’ name o’ Witsaway [DA].
1970		Current Sl. V:1.
1998		Niemann & Bertucci Railroad Voices 62: The conductor offered to prove his point with a deadheading hoghead riding between Oakland and K Falls.
2005		A. Allen Orig. Old Rails’ Tales 24: They hired this woman engineer, hoghead, and she goes back to Topeka to shake and bake hoghead school.

(US und.) a pimp.

1856

Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 23 Aug. n.p.: Please ask the hog-man [...] does he make anything out of those two girls from Charlestown?

(US und.) the girls employed by a single pimp.

1856

Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 23 Aug. n.p.: The young one is not broken into the ‘hog-train’ yet, though he does borrow money to pay her wages and don’t pay it back.

1. sixpence.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Half a Hog, c. Six Pence.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 19: Sixpence – Half a Hog.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Half a Hog. Sixpence.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 97: Half-a-hog – sixpence.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 121/2: Half a hog, half a shilling.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1881		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 18 July 2/6: For our next coin in value twenty names are found, viz: - ‘sixpence,’ ‘bandy,’ ‘broder,’ ‘cripple.’ ‘downer,’ ‘fiddler.’ ‘fyebuck,’ ‘half-hog,’ ‘kick,’ ‘lord of the manor,’ ‘pig,’ ‘pot,’ ‘say saltee,' ’sprat,’ ‘snid,’ ‘simon,’ ‘sow's baby,’ ’tanner,’ tester,’ and ‘tizzy’.
1885		Household Words 20 June 155: The sixpence... is variously known as a ‘pig,’ a ‘sow’s baby,’ a ‘grunter,’ and ‘half a hog’ [F&H].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 34: Half a Hog, sixpence.
1922		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 19 July 2/4: Sixpence is a popular coin in slangdom [...] ‘half-a-hog,’ ‘kick,’ (thus two and a ‘kick’ 2s 6d)‘lord of the manor,’ ‘pig,’ ‘pot,’ ‘snid,’ ‘sow’s baby’.

2. (US Und.) a five-cent piece, a nickel.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum 40: half-a-hog A five-cent piece.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).

1. a well-dressed lout, of either sex.

1659		J. Howell Eng. Proverbs 19: He looketh like a Hogg in armour .
1700		T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 62: Here we saw [...] the Frying-pan and Drum, the Lute and Tun, the Hog in Armour, and a thousand others [i.e. tavern signs].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1839		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 1 June 169/1: Fine feathers do not always make fine birds, and you never looked more like an hog in armour.
1849		Sam Sly 20 Jan. 3/1: A pretty figure you cut truly, with your head nearly touching the ground. You look more like a pig in armour than a graceful dancer.
1911		J.W. Horsley Memoirs of a ‘Sky Pilot’ 254: The plainly modern ‘monkey on a gridiron’ for cyclist, or ‘hog in armour’ for a district messenger boy .
1911		Truth (Sydn ey) 2 Apr. 9/2: Some goes to the Coronation, / Wearing breeches and a sword, / Lookin like a hog in armor, / Or a bogie from abroad.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 24 Dec. 5/6: Why does Alb T fancy himself? Sport thinks he looks like a pig in harness.

2. (US) a blustering official.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: Hog in Armour, a blustering office-holder.

(US) a man-about-town, a loafer with no visible means of support but an endless appetite for good clothes, parties and places of entertainment .

1889		Farmer Americanisms 300/1: Hog in togs, a well-dressed loafer .
1894		Hants. Advertiser 24 Feb. 2/3: A ‘hog in togs’ is a Jack in office.

(US prison) pork, gravy and potatoes.

1931

San Quentin Bulletin Jan. 11: Pork, gravy and boiled potatoes are hog, mud and rocks.

see make a pig of oneself under pig n.

an Irish shilling.

1997

Share Slanguage.

(US) male adolescence.

1848		J. Mitchell Nantucketisms 40: Hog age. Between Boyhood & Manhood [DA].
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues III 328/1: Hog-age, the period between boyhood and manhood .
1904		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:vi 426: hog-age, n. The awkward, ill-mannered age of a boy.

(US) pork with hominy grits or cornbread; thus fig. as the basics of existence.

1776		W. Hooper in Letter from James Murray (1901) 239: The blessing of domestic peace that I might enjoy in my own Cabin, eat my Hogg & Hominee without anything to make me afraid .
1843		R. Carlton New Purchase II 171: And all this was real American, United States’ learning!—useful, practical stuff!—such as would enable a fellow to get his own bread and butter; or in new Purchase terms, his hog and hominy!
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 242: The Skaggs family, which was a numerous one, cultivated a small farm, from which they extracted sufficient hog and hominy to keep them from starvation.
1884		Fort Worth Dly Gaz. (TX) 1 Apr. 1/4: Whenever a flood has visited the great valley Congress has sent down hog and homony by the ton and shoveled it outamong the voracious Ethiopians.
1894		Louisiana Populist 21 Dec. 1/5: Honest sensible men will see that ‘hog and hominy’ will do no better than cotton .
1909		Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 21 Nov. 1/7: It is nothing more nor less than the good old ‘hog and hominy’ doctrine.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 578: hog and hominy, n. Poor rations of any kind.
1919		Cayton’s Wkly (Seattle, WA) 20 Dec. 4/2: I am rustling for hog and hominy for seven dependents.
1948		E.N. Dick Dixie Frontier 290: Bacon or other pork products were such a common accompaniment of this kind of corn that the monotonous diet was often referred to as ‘hog and hominy’ .

see sow-belly n.

1. a loudspeaker.

1948

S. Heym Crusaders (1950) 330: Bing dropped a package on the chair. ‘Why, the hog-caller!’ exclaimed Troy, and got up to shake Bing’s hand. [...] ‘My God, you haven’t brought those damned loudspeakers again.’.

2. one who makes themselves heard, with complaints, arguments, orders etc.

1940		S. Longstreet Decade 349: In Washington, the misfits, the clowns, the head line-eaters, the handshakers and the hog-callers made big medicine.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 22: hog-caller – Big mouth complainer; a loud, barking cat that’s always heard well above the crowd giving his chops a workout.

3. a loud and piercing scream, akin to those used by farmers calling their pigs.

1972

C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 124: Hyans dropped to his knees and screamed [...] he grabbed the handle, dropped to his knees and let go another hog-caller.

(US black) an unintelligent person.

1936

‘Hectic Harlem’ in N.Y. Amsterdam News 8 Feb, sect. 2: HOG CUTTER. – A low-brow person.

(US) very drunk.

1955		E. Abbey Brave Cowboy (1958) 38: Got hog drunk and hit the floor.
1964		J. Thompson Pop. 1280 (1990) 69: Just about every time you were out here hog-drunk, too stupid to appreciate what a good thing you had.

see separate entry.

(Aus.) a useless person, a parasite, a ‘good-for-nothing’; lit. very fat.

[1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Mar. 24/2: McAuliffe, as far as appearances went, hadn’t trained an hour; he was hog-fat].
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 98: That’s what comes of having a cripple on the show – a bloomin’ hog-fat.

a mean, miserly, sneaking person.

1628		R. Speed Counter-Rat F4: [A long-tail’d Rat] He was no Hog-grubber.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: A Hog-grubber, a close-fisted, narrow-soul’d sneaking Fellow.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 18: Hog grubber – a sneaking mean fellow, a cadger. Hog grunter – a close-sifted, narrow-souled, mean fellow.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

(US) a state of bliss or blissful ignorance.

1913		Railway Carman’s Jrnl 18 50/1: I’ve got a splendid agreement all ready drawn up and signed, and it’s all to your benefit [...] all you have to do is just wake up long enough to sign up and you are in hog heaven.
1945		C.H. Hogan ‘A Yankee ... on Texas Speech’ in AS XX:2 Apr. 83: His friends will scoff: ‘Look at ol’ Billie Bob over there. He thinks he’s in hog-Heaven.’.
1977		J. Olsen Secret of Fire Five 43: At first the rest of the guys were in hog heaven.
1987		C. Hiaasen Double Whammy (1990) 194: Man of means. Garcia was in hog heaven.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 352: Blacks (and women) were in hog heaven after Kovach got there.
2004		C. Hiaasen Skinny Dip 160: Chaz must be in hog heaven [...] He could chat about his penis all night long.
2020		A. Trebek The Answer Is 25: I had my own little Philco radio. [...] I’d listen to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and Fibber McGee and Molly [...] I was in hog heaven.

(US) a generic term for any small, impoverished, out-of-the-way settlement; thus hog-wallowing adj., refering to an inhabitant of such a place.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 30 Apr. n.p.: the whip wants to know If Mrs C of Hog town has found any beaux yet and if so where did they come from.
1850		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 7 Sept. n.p.: But then, what can you expect? This is Hog-town!
1898		H. Macfall Wooings of Jezebel Pettyfer 8: ‘Huh! I’ll learn yo’ manners, yo’ dirty – black – hog-wallowin’ --’ She stammered in her fury, searching for epithets.
1929		letter in J.E. Haley XIT Ranch of Texas 200: The sporting fraternity was kept below the hill, where Hog-town reveled by night and slept by day.
2001		(con. late 19C) C. Jeffords Shady Ladies of the Old West 🌐 There was usually a so-called ‘Hog Town’ just off the reservation, where the men could find gambling, whiskey, and a few aging and degenerate women.

(US) an unexpected or large financial profit.

1900		C.L. Cullen Taking Chances 8: They had just pulled off a swell hog-killing up in Toronto and had two or three thousand each in their clothes.
1911		Adventure Apr. 958: A Gigantic Hog-Killing. We have Inside Information of a Long Shot that should Win To-morrow at 10 to 1 [HDAS].

(US) a boisterous party, a celebration.

1885		C.A. Siringo Texas Cow Boy (1950) 100: John and I [...] had a hog killing time all by ourselves.
1888		Fort Worth Daily Gaz. (TX) 19 Mar. n.p.: The Cincinnati club must have felt very much at home. What a hog-killing time they had, to be sure.
1892		Waco Eve. News (TX) 25 Mar. 2/2: The people had a regular hog-killing time in 1890 and have been feasting on backbone.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 83: hog-killin’ time, n. phr. An enjoyable time. ‘We just had a hog-killin’ time’.
1906		A. Adams ‘In the Hands of His Friends’ in Cattle Brands 🌐 Says he will have two fiddlers, and promises us the hog killingest time of our lives.
1910		Seattle Republican (Wash. State) 22 July 5/3: I had hog-killing time with the boys.
1915		L.R. Dingus ‘A Word-List From Virginia’ in DN IV:iii 184: hog killin’ time, n. [...] 2. A highly enjoyable time.
c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 111: A bang-out hog wallow of a night like that was for only a few guests who were special.
1933		V. Randolph ‘4th Ozark Word List’ in AS VIII:1 49/2: Hog-killing, n. Any sort of hilarious celebration or jollification.
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 253: We had a regular hog-killin’ at the dance t’other night.

see separate entry.

(W.I.) uncouth.

1932

C. McKay Gingertown 8: Ain’t nothing good about that hog-mouth nigger.

(US black) a disgusting or filthy place.

1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 877: And as long as they put me in the f-- hogpen of a Stockade, I’ll never go back.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 138: Hog pen A messy room.

(US) a brothel.

[1864		Hotten Sl. Dict. 211: Rancho In Washington, with their accustomed ingenuity in corrupting words and meanings, the Americans use the appellation for a place of evil report].
1885		Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican and Live Stock Journal 27 Aug. 2/4: The Priest girls, who live at what is known as ‘the hog ranch’ in the southwest part of the city, were robbed and otherwise badly treated Saturday night [DARE].
1897		O. Wister Lin McLean 7: He broke it again at the hog-ranch across the bridge.
1900		G.A. Forsyth Story of the Soldier 140: These shacks soon became known as ‘hog ranches’ and [...] two or three of the most wretched and lowest class of abandoned women [...] could be seen standing in the doorway.
1927		C.M. Russell Trails Plowed Under 85: But we’re all peaceful enough till the sport that runs this hog-ranch objects to the noise I’m makin’.
1963		(con. late 19C) D. Rickey 40 Miles a Day 55: An occasional spree in a frontier saloon or off-limits ‘hog ranch’ groggery and brothel was not really considered evidence of heavy drinking.
1974		(con. 1860s) T.A. Larson Hist. of Wyoming 203: Many ‘soiled doves’ could be found in Wyoming towns and at rural ‘hog ranches’.
1984		(con. 1870s) Fogg Coffey in Lanning & Lanning Memories of Texas Cowboys 24: Old Dad Guest had a hog ranch at Fort Chadbourne along in the early seventies.
1994		(con. 1860s) T.P. Lowry Stories the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell 174: These ‘hog ranches’ were found outside Fort Laramie [...] Fort Lincoln, among others.

(US) very wealthy, esp. nouveau-riche.

1906		J.A. Mitchell Silent War 129: Debauchers of law and justice, so hog-rich with plunder you cannot estimate your wealth.
1950		R. Starnes Another Mug for the Bier 12: [I]f the government built the pipeline, the Broken Bow interests would be hog-rich overnight.
1984		R. Thomas Missionary Stew 49: The Keatses went from dirt-poor to hog-rich to banker-stuffy in one generation.
2007		D. Brock If I Never Get Back 5: Squatting near the vaulted window of her hog-rich parents’ Burlingame home.

a rustic, an ignorant peasant, a disgusting, filthy person .

1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle II ii: por.: Must I carry this great fiddle to your chamber, Mistress Mary? moll: Fiddle, goodman hog-rubber?
1614		Jonson Bartholomew Fair V iv: Ay, Hogrubber o’ Pickt-hatch.
1621		R. Burton Anatomy of Melancholy iii. ii. iv. i. (1638) 536: The very rusticks and hog-rubbers if once they tast of this Loue liquor, are inspired in an instant.

see hog-eye n.

see hog-head

see hog-wrestle

(W.I.) a crude, loud person.

1970

L. Bennett Auntie Roachy Sey (2003) 70: She know plenty-plenty oman who deh pon a drive motor car good-good fi plenty years mongs nuff hog-thomas man drivers.

see hog island

(US tramp) the world of tramping.

1897

J. London ‘Road’ in Hendricks & Shepherd Jack London Reports (1970) 311–21: The ‘Road,’ the hog-train, or for brevity’s sake, the hog: It is a realm almost as unexplored as fairyland, yet hardly as impregnable.

see hog-killing (time)

see separate entries.

(orig. US) extremely drunk.

2001

S. Hoggart Guardian 8 Dec. 🌐 So to avoid complete, staggering, hog-whimpering inebriation at big tastings I just take tiny sips – and a second if the first seems promising.

1. (US, also hoggy-wild) out of control, crazy; often as go hog-wild.

1896		Nat. Tribune (Wash., DC) 22 Oct. 8/3: Don’t get hump-backed and red-eyed and go hog-wild about the election.
1904		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN II:vi 419: hog wild, adj. Wildy excited. ‘I never saw such an excitement over a little thing in Arkansas as there was over that debate. They went hog wild.’.
1906		Guthrie Daily Leader (OK) 21 Feb. 1/1: This town has gone absolutely hog wild in its antagonism to Guthrie and everything emanating from there.
1914		R. Lardner You Know Me Al (1984) 143: You better not take a chance because the big busher is hogwild.
1925		R. Lardner ‘Women’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 150: Make this fella pitch, boys [...] He was hog wild in Philly the other day.
1927		(con. 1918) J. Stevens Mattock 285: Him and all the rest’ll run hog-wild.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 190: Flop yo’ ears an’ go hog wild.
1943		J. Mitchell McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (2001) 76: They’ve gone hog-proud and hog-wild.
1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 251: Boys up there’d go plumb hoggy wild if’n they c’d lay an eye on any secha perty set of hips.
1953		J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 8: I kind of went hog wild in there.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 233: I didn’t go hog wild any more.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 163: That’s sure hell the route I went. Hog wild.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 176: Jesús Bernal went hog-wild with bombs. He built three of them, and typed up a preliminary list of targets.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 234: Obrey says [...] to my mother: ‘That boy is hog wild and jaybird crazy.’.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 71: I want these boys to go hog wild.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 122: When you were a kid and got your first chemistry set [...] you got tired of the faggy little experiments in the booklet and just went hogwild and mixed all that shit together.

2. absolutely determined; also adv.

1911		A. Adams Wells Brothers 🌐 Ch. ii: I’ve fallen head over ears in love with the idea of this trail hospital. [...] I’m hog wild to get in on it.
1924		H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 206: Driving my car around hog-wild, jamming its fenders against every tree in the whole country.

1. (US) a noisy, inelegant, low-class dance.

1912		Mansfield (OH) News 7 Dec. 10(?)/3: The side show of the movement will be to go after the kind of music that you hear in the all-night dumps and the public hog-rassles.
1915		DN IV 233: Hog-wrastle, n. A modern dance.
1926		DN V 387: Hog wrestle (—rassle) n.phr. Contemptuous term for a cheap or vulgar dance. ‘The dance last night was a regular hog wrestle.’.
1933		Leatherneck Feb. 29: Jimmy Lowery, who rarely misses a hawg-rassle, hasn’t been to a dance in a coon’s age [HDAS].
1940		(con. WWI) L. Nason Approach to Battle 28: I cursed my horse and my own folly for letting myself in for any such hog wrastle [HDAS].
1968		in DARE II 1047/1: hog-stomp.

2. a rowdy argument.

1945

L.R. Ward Ourselves, Inc. 89: There‘s going to be lots of trouble ahead, but after this hog-wrestle, what’s going to be a-popping, I’d like to see.

see under drive v.¹

(US) obese.

1950

R. Starnes Another Mug for the Bier 17: He was a big, hog-gutted man with little puzzled blue eyes set deep in a heavy, purple face.

(W.I., Bdos) in a state of absolute bliss.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

(US) unsteadily, clumsily.

1889

World (N.Y.) 19 Oct. 2/6: Collins, after scrambling around like a hog on ice, tossed it to first in time for an out.

1. (US) living as a tramp; by ext. dismissed from a job (see cite 1915).

1893		Sun (NY) 21 May 28/1: ‘Dis is de last time dat I’m goin’ to get on de hog [...] Dis is de fourt’ winter dat I’ve had to “hobo” it and I’m tired’.
1898		Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 3 Dec. 5/1: [The building] was constructed as a reform school. It might just as well have been built as a refuge for sporting men who are on the hog train, as there are more of them.
1904		S.F. Chronicle 6 Mar. 3: In the hunt for Rudolph, Pinkerton men rode with tramps on brake beams, on the ends of blind baggage cars, in freight cars, ‘on the hog’ — that is to say, on hog and livestock trains — on cow-catchers, and in the crevices of lumber cars.
1915		NY Tribune 28 May 15/5: Cozy made his major league debut [...] three years ago, and after two weeks they put him on the Hog Train.
1923		A.W. Dragstedt ‘No Matter Where You Go’ in Anderson Hobo 213: ‘On the hog’ in Kansas City.
1927		C. Sandburg ‘A.R.U’ in Amer. Songbag 191: I’m still on the hog train flagging my meals.
1928		Hound Head Henry ‘My Silver Dollar Mama’ 🎵 I got a pocket full of dollars, so you see I ain’t on the hog.

2. (US) out of order, chaotic, of objects, in bad condition.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 41: hog, n. In phrase ‘on the hog’ used as adj. Very poor, bad.
1907		J. London Road 159: Salinas is on the ‘hog,’ the ‘bulls’ is ‘horstile.’.
1912		in J.L. Kornbluh Rebel Voices (1964) 76: Things are dull in San Francisco, / On the hog in New Orleans.
1920		C.R. Cooper Under Big Top 229: This road’s on the hog [DA].
1930		G. Milburn ‘Everywhere You Go’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 95: Things are dull in San Francisco, / On the hog in New Orleans.

3. (US campus) at a disadvantage.

1900

A.H. Lewis ‘Crime That Failed’ in Sandburrs 81: In ten hours more dey would have had that bank on d’ hog for fair.

4. (US) of people, in bad condition, penniless.

1899

A.H. Lewis Sandburrs 188: D’ fam’ly was on d’ hog for fair when Bridgy gets there. [Ibid.] 288: His ratty eyes—one of ’em on d’ hog, as I states.

5. (US) depressed.

1896

Ade Artie (1963) 29: On the hog, that’s all. Been feelin’ rotten all day.

6. (US campus) honest.

1896

W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 17: hog train, to be strictly on the To be fair, honest. ‘That isn’t cheating; it’s strictly on the hog train.’.

see hog v. (1b)

see under sure as... phr.

see separate entry.

a practical joke whereby a sleeper’s big toe was attached to a string which, when pulled, caused them acute pain.

1898

Regiment 2 Apr. 10/1: ‘Tailing the hog’ was considered a highly amusing punishment; the modus operandi being, when the varmint of the regiment was asleep to tie his big toe with a string, which. when adjusted was then hauled on, causing the ‘sleeping beauty’ an agonising cramping pain.

see I’ll be jiggered! under jigger v.³