swinish, a.
(ˈswaɪnɪʃ)
[f. swine n. + -ish1.]
1. Having the character or disposition of a swine; hoggish, piggish; sensual, gluttonous; coarse, gross, or degraded in nature.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 37 [They] ben icleped swinisse men & on hem wuneð þe deuel. 1588 Marprel. Epist. (Arb.) 24 The Lorde B. and your Antichristian swinish rable. 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse Wks. (Grosart) II. 43, I loue the quicke-witted Italians..because they mortally detest this surley swinish Generation. 1606 S. Gardiner Bk. Angling 22 Drunkards, swinish Epicures, heretiques. 1685 Baxter Paraphr. N.T. Luke viii. 32 Swinish sinners. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 117 Learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude. 1829 Lytton Disowned lxxxiii, The reeking, gaping, swinish crowd. 1829 Scott Anne of G. xxiii, ‘The swinish mutineers!’ said Schreckenwald. 1857 H. S. Brown Manliness 2 Far be it from me to say that the multitude is swinish, but certainly there is a swinish multitude. |
b. Of actions, etc.: Characteristic of or befitting a swine; coarse, degraded, beastly.
| 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 3718 He, in hys swynys lawe, Off hys rudnesse bestyal, Ne kan no ferther se at al Toward the hevene. ? 1563 Veron (title) A Frvtefvl treatise of predestination,..with an apology of the same, against the swynyshe gruntinge of the Epicures and Atheystes of oure time. 1604 Shakes. Ham. i. iv. 19 (Qo. 2) They clip vs drunkards, and with Swinish phrase Soyle our addition. 1605 ― Macb. i. vii. 67 When in Swinish sleepe, Their drenched Natures lyes. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage ix. viii. 717 In this swinish education he had not so much as learned to reade. 1694 F. Bragge Disc. Parables xi. 381 Drunkenness, that swinish vice. 1817 Bentham Parl. Reform Wks. 1843 III. 469 Swinish the character, of the vast majority of that vast multitude. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. x, In his worse than swinish state..he was a pretty object for any eyes. |
2. Pertaining to or fit for swine.
| 1592 Breton C'tess Pembroke's Love Wks. (Grosart) I. 22/2 The sweetest wine, is but as swinish wash, Vnto the water, of the well of life. |
3. Having the nature of swine; that is a swine; consisting of swine.
| 1612 Rowlands Knaue of Harts (Hunter. Cl.) 27 Directly like the swinish Hogge he liues, That feeds on fruit which from the tree doth fall. 1799 S. Turner Anglo-Sax. ii. vii. 316 Ina..was amazed to find..a swinish litter on the couch of his repose. 1830 Carlyle in For. Rev. & Cont. Misc. V. 10 All sorts of bovine, swinish, and feathered cattle. 1891 Farrar Darkn. & Dawn lxvi, To have its site defiled with swinish offerings and Pagan shrines. |
b. Resembling a swine or that of a swine, in aspect or other physical quality.
| 1805 [S. Weston] Werneria 13 The swinish smell Most fetid [of swine-stone]. 1815 Ann. Reg., Chron. 17/2 There is hardly a company in which this swinish female [having features like a pig] is not talked of. 1889 W. C. Russell Marooned xiv, The swinish outline of the porpoise. |
Hence ˈswinishly adv.; ˈswinishness.
| 1545 Bale Image Both Ch. i. 39 b, For so muche as thou haste not..bene thankfull vnto God for such an heauenly gift, but rather swynishly troden it vnder thy feete. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Porqueria, swinishnes. 1655 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. i. iii. (1669) 26/2 The Drunkard has nothing to say for himself, when you ask him why he lives so swinishly. a 1775 J. Rutty in Boswell Johnson (1848) 551/2 [Johnson laughed heartily..at his mentioning, with such a serious regret, occasional instances of] swinishness in eating. a 1868 in Farrar Seekers (1875) 333 It stands out in noble contrast to the swinishness of the Campanian villas. |