Word.ws English Dictionary

pigs in the parlour

pigs in the parlour noun: an allegory for a backward rural society.

Noun

pigs in the parlour pl (plural only)

  1. (Ireland, UK, plural, plural-only) An allegory for a backward rural society.
    • Before 1968, what little coverage there was of Irish affairs was of the traditional 'pigs in the parlour' kind.1986, Yonah Alexander, Alan O'Day, Ireland's terrorist dilemma, page 111

Questions about pigs in the parlour

What does pigs in the parlour mean?
Pigs in the parlour means an allegory for a backward rural society.
What part of speech is pigs in the parlour?
Pigs in the parlour is a noun.

Words near pigs in the parlour in the dictionary

  1. pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered
  2. pigs in a blanket
  3. pigs in a poke
  4. pigs in blankets
  5. pigs in pokes
  6. pigs in the parlour
  7. pigs it
  8. pigs may fly
  9. pigs might fly
  10. pigs off
  11. pigs out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pigs in the parlour (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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