road hog
1
6.8
- noun
- /roʊd hɔg/
- Offensive
:
matón de la carretera
- Come on, move over, road hog.
Examples
-
It's probably some road hog who thinks he owns...
-
Look out for the road hog!
-
- Now that's what I call a couple of road hogs.
-
The driver swerved into my lane; he was such a road hog.
-
Every time I go out, there seems to be a road hog who takes up too much space on the road.
-
While driving home, I encountered a road hog that refused to let others pass.
Synonyms
1
7.7
A driver who takes up extra space and blocks other cars
How Aggressive
- Offensive
1
6.8
- Offensive
1
7.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is a straightforward noun+noun formation where 'road' specifies the domain and 'hog' denotes someone who takes more than their fair share; thus a learner who knows 'road' and the metaphorical sense of 'hog' (a selfish, greedy person) can infer 'a driver who selfishly uses the road.' This is a productive, compositional pattern (to 'hog' something) and is cross-linguistically transparent, so the meaning is readily derivable from its parts.
Etymology
Road hog compares a selfish driver to a greedy pig: the hog takes up the whole road, leaving little space for others. That's why it means 'a driver who takes more than their fair share of the road'.