swine
A pig, especially a farm animal raised for meat, or pigs as a group.
A pig, especially a domesticated pig kept for meat, or pigs considered collectively as livestock.
An insulting word for a very bad or selfish person.
An insulting term for a person who is extremely unpleasant, selfish, cruel, or morally disgusting.
A task or situation that is very hard or very unpleasant.
A very difficult, annoying, or unpleasant task, problem, or situation.
- Base: swine
- Plural: swine, swines
pearls before swine
1Valuable things wasted on those who ignore
A situation where something good or valuable is given to people who do not understand it or do not care about it.
- Her carefully prepared presentation was pearls before swine in that meeting.
- He felt his music was pearls before swine at that noisy bar.
- Posting serious research there is pearls before swine; nobody is interested.
cast pearls before swine
1Give value to people who ignore it
To offer something good or valuable to people who do not understand it or do not care about it.
- Trying to explain poetry to someone who hates reading felt like casting pearls before swine.
- He stopped giving them advice because it was just casting pearls before swine.
- Sharing that detailed report with them was casting pearls before swine; nobody even read it.
cast pearls before swine
2offer value to unappreciative people
To give something good to people who will not understand or care about it.
- Trying to explain fine art to him is like casting pearls before swine.
- She felt she was casting pearls before swine when she shared her ideas with them.
swine flu
1Type of flu linked to pigs
A kind of flu that starts in pigs and can sometimes make people sick.
- There was a global outbreak of swine flu in 2009.
- There was a major outbreak of swine flu in several countries that year.
- The news reported a new case of swine flu in the region.
- Health officials warned travelers about the risk of swine flu.
- The vaccine was developed to protect both humans and swine from swine flu.