What it means
Means to eat loads in one sitting, usually more than you meant to, because the food’s too tempting to stop. Think demolishing pizza, crisps, chocolate or a dodgy takeaway until you’re unbuttoning your jeans. Often used for late-night, post-pub munchies, when portion control has fully clocked off and you’re still saying one more bite.
Usage examples
"Came back from the pub and pigged out on a dirty kebab, cheesy chips and half a pizza. Woke up parched, crumbs everywhere, no shame."
"We pigged out on the entire box of Christmas chocolates by Boxing Day afternoon, the wrappers scattered across the lounge carpet like confetti, and not a single hazelnut praline survived the family marathon of festive films."
"After the long walk along the South Downs Way the whole group pigged out at the village pub in Alfriston, three rounds of fish and chips, two sticky toffee puddings and the dog finishing the leftover beer-battered scampi from the side plate."
Where it comes from
Pig out arrived in British English from American campus slang of the nineteen-seventies, when university students described raiding the fridge after midnight as pigging out. The verb relies on the long-standing English association of the pig with greedy and undignified eating, an association attested in print since the seventeenth century. The phrasal verb with the particle out reinforces the idea of going overboard, of finishing the bag, the tray, the takeaway box. Britain adopted the form in the eighties via American sitcoms and family films, and it has stayed ever since.
Other ways to say it
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