Word.ws English Dictionary

go the whole hog

UK/ˈɡəʊ ðə həʊl ˈhɒɡ//ˈɡoʊ ðə hoʊl ˈhɔɡ/

go the whole hog verb: to do something as completely or entirely as possible; to hold back or reserve nothing.

Verb

go the whole hog (third-person singular simple present goes the whole hog, present participle going the whole hog, simple past went the whole hog, past participle gone the whole hog)

  1. (US, idiomatic, informal, intransitive) To do something as completely or entirely as possible; to hold back or reserve nothing.
    • If you can afford a new computer, you might as well go the whole hog and get it custom built.
    • Having nothing else to do, I thought that I might, in part, amuse myself by observing the proceedings and listening to the remarks of a certain sea-captain (also a visiter at the same time), an Englishman born, and, though a naturalized citizen, an Englishman still in his heart, and notable for the...1831 June 4, “[Miscellaneous]”, in H[ezekiah] Niles, editor, Niles’ Weekly Register, […], volume IV, number 14 (Fourth Series; volume XL, number 1,028, overall), Baltimore, Md.: H. Niles, →OCLC, page...

Examples of go the whole hog in a sentence

  • To gain influence in Canada, and be the leader of a party, a man must, as the Yankees say, "go the whole hog."1853, [Susanna] Moodie, chapter II, in Life in the Clearings versus the Bush, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 50:
  • Not to share the bank with the table, or to take some minor part of it, but to go the whole hog.1953, Ian Fleming, “The Deadly Tube”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 86:

Synonyms of go the whole hog

Forms of go the whole hog

third-person singular presentgoes the whole hog
present participlegoing the whole hog
pastwent the whole hog
past participlegone the whole hog
alternative formgo whole hog

Origin of go the whole hog

Origin uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested: * A reference to using the whole of a hog’s carcass for food, leather, etc., without wasting any part; or specifically to a poem by the English poet William Cowper (1731–1800), “The Love of the World Reproved” (published 1782) in which uncertainty among Muslims about which parts of a hog are permitted as food leads to the whole animal being eaten. * A reference to hog (“(Ireland, New Zealand, UK, historical, slang) shilling; (US, obsolete, rare) ten-cent coin, dime”), possibly in the context of spending the entire sum of money.

Words that rhyme with go the whole hog

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about go the whole hog

What does go the whole hog mean?
Go the whole hog means to do something as completely or entirely as possible; to hold back or reserve nothing.
How do you use go the whole hog in a sentence?
To gain influence in Canada, and be the leader of a party, a man must, as the Yankees say, "go the whole hog."
What part of speech is go the whole hog?
Go the whole hog is a verb.
How do you pronounce go the whole hog?
Go the whole hog is pronounced /ˈɡəʊ ðə həʊl ˈhɒɡ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of go the whole hog?
The past tense of go the whole hog is went the whole hog.

Words near go the whole hog in the dictionary

  1. go the way of all flesh
  2. go the way of all the earth
  3. go the way of the dinosaurs
  4. go the way of the dodo
  5. go the way of the dodo bird
  6. go the whole hog
  7. go the whole pile
  8. go their separate ways
  9. go there
  10. go through
  11. go through fire and water

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: go the whole hog (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-go the whole hog.wav, En-au-go the whole hog.ogg.

Cite this entry: “go the whole hog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/go_the_whole_hog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.