ˈhog-reeve U.S.
[f. hog n.1 + reeve.]
An officer charged with the prevention or appraising of damages by stray swine; a field-driver. Formerly a town officer in New England; the office is now merely nominal.
| 1759 Amherst Rec. (1884) 21/1 Joseph Clark..John Petty sworn Hog Riffs. 1780 Ibid. 77/2 Voted—Israel Dickinson..Benjamin Smith Hogreeves. 1837–40 Haliburton Clockm (1862) 138, I wonder, says he, if there's are a hogreave here, because if there be I require a turn of his office. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. II. ii. xlviii. 229 Hog reeves (now usually called field drivers). |