piggish

adjective

pig·​gish ˈpi-gish How to pronounce piggish (audio)
1
: of, relating to, or suggestive of a pig
a piggish snort
2
: having qualities associated with a pig
piggishly adverb
piggishness noun

Examples of piggish in a Sentence

a piggish demand for more money He has a piggish attitude toward women.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Rogen lands a few funny lines, but the jokes mostly serve to distract from the point of the story: that freedom is ephemeral and easily corrupted, while humans are inherently piggish (as opposed to the other way around), seizing the first opportunity to take more than their share. Peter Debruge, Variety, 9 June 2025 The merged generative AI model is bloated and runs extremely slowly, possibly so piggish that using it on everyday tasks is exasperating and imprudent due to enormous delays while processing. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 11 Sep. 2024 Surrounded by a dysfunctional family and a piggish boss (Stellan Skarsgård), Justine is lonely, exasperated, and seething. Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 12 Apr. 2024 Also called the hog-nosed bat for its squashed, piggish nose, this bat hails from western Thailand and southeast Myanmar. Anna Nordseth, Discover Magazine, 1 Aug. 2023 Surrounded by a dysfunctional family and a piggish boss (Stellan Skarsgård), Justine is lonely, exasperated, and seething. Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2021 Her nemesis, piggish ex-husband and former club owner Rupert (Anthony Head), is out of the picture. Lorraine Ali Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2021 His vocal presence keeps you attentive and improbably charmed, even when the leading men of his plays—the writer-actor often portrays them himself—are at their piggish and sociopathic worst. Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 19 July 2021 In short, the tax break is symbolic of winner-takes-all capitalism at its most piggish, and helps explain the rising number of Americans who hold a positive view of socialism. Lila MacLellan, Quartz, 21 Dec. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1742, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of piggish was in 1742

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Piggish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piggish. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.

Kids Definition

piggish

adjective
pig·​gish ˈpig-ish How to pronounce piggish (audio)
: resembling or suggesting a pig (as in greed or dirtiness)
piggishly adverb

More from Merriam-Webster on piggish

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