sucking pig
1
8.2
- noun
- /ˈsʌkɪŋ pɪg/
:
lechón
Examples
-
You scum-sucking pig.
-
You cock sucking pigs.
-
Yellow-bellied, scum sucking pig.
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The festival featured a roast dinner with a young sucking pig that had just been weaned.
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During the farm tour, the children got to see a playful sucking pig cuddling with its mother.
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On the menu, we found an exotic dish made with tender meat from a sucking pig.
Synonyms
137
2.8
A young farm animal with a short nose and curly tail
62
1.0
A very young farm animal with a round body and short legs that still drinks its mother's milk
3
6.6
A very young pig that still drinks its mother's milk, often cooked whole for roasting
1
6.1
A baby or young animal that still drinks its mother's milk
A young animal that drinks milk from its mother
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a present-participial modifier where 'sucking' describes the pig's action; a learner who knows 'suck' (to feed by suckling) and 'pig' can infer 'a pig that is still feeding on its mother's milk' without prior exposure. This compositional pattern (verb+noun forming a descriptive noun phrase) is common across languages, so the meaning is directly derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Sucking pig comes from the clear image of a small pig that is still sucking milk from its mother. That's why it means 'a piglet not yet weaned'.