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 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 Her Hollywood début, in 1980, had her sharing the screen with two notorious women, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, and involved a revenge fantasy against a piggish male boss. Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2020 In Moore’s telling, that gaze is inseparable from the piggish entitlement of catcallers and casting-couch creeps. Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 19 June 2019 The most famous figure to fall has been Mr. Batali, the celebrity chef who was the subject of several published reports in December alleging behavior that ran the gamut from piggish to coercive. Kim Severson, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2018

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'piggish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1742, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of piggish was in 1742

Dictionary Entries Near piggish

Cite this Entry

“Piggish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piggish. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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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