Dictionary

high on the hog en · ADV

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

An allusion to the best and costliest cuts of meat from a hog, considered to be parts above the belly such as the loin, rather than lower parts such as the feet, knuckles, hocks, belly, and jowls. US, late 1800s; popularized 1940s. The variant forms – live/eat and on/off – are attested since at least the 1930s. However, decades earlier is the phrase on the hog, originally on the hog train meaning someone living on little expense.

Meanings

1. (US, idiomatic) Well off; living comfortably or extravagantly due to great wealth or financial security.
   • Down our way there is a favorite expression used quite often—“eating high on the hog”. That is what our competitors have been doing… 1927, Allegheny Regional Advisory Board, Proceedings of the regular meeting,, page 21:
   • Ever since his promotion, they’ve been living high on the hog.
   • The synthetic belle wins the prize and her creators are eating high off the hog until the nation’s Press demands a look at the original. 1934, Time, Volume 24, p. 68
   • If she was pulling this scam off all that time, I think she'd be living a little higher on the hog, don't you? 2006, Julia Spencer-Fleming, All Mortal Flesh: A Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery:
   • With all the tenderloin, spareribs and backbones, we lived “high off the hog”. 1912, George S. Jack, Edward Boyle Jacobs, History of Roanoke County,, page 29:

Forms

Relateds

high life · live large · cream of the crop · well to do · upper crust