Sow-pig

[f. SOW sb.¹ 8 c.] A young female pig, esp. one which has been spayed; a sow.

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1548. Elyot, Scrofula,… a littell sow pigge.

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1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 82. One bore pig and sow pig, that sucketh before.

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1611. Cotgr., Cochonniere, a Sow; or Sow-pigge.

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1628. Ford, Lover’s Mel., I. ii. There is within a mile or two, a Sow-pig Hath suckt a Brach, and now hunts the Deere … Aswell as any Hound in Cyprus.

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a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1752), 289. A sow-pig will eat well at a month old, but a boar-pig at that age will eat strong.

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1760. Phil. Trans., LII. 36. The four … soldiers touching with their swords … a sow-pig, held by an herald.

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1838. G. P. R. James, Robber, vi. With a cut in his neck, which has made him bleed like an old sow-pig.

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1883. W. G. Black, Folk-Med., xii. 198. There the sow-pigs were reared.

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