bartholomew pigs
Preserved but no longer current.
See BARTHOLOMEW. He has brought his pigs to a pretty market. He has made a very bad bargain; he has managed his business in a very bad way. Pigs were for long a principal article of sale with rustics, and till recently the cottager looked to pay his rent by the sale of his pigs.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “bartholomew pigs” mean?
See BARTHOLOMEW. He has brought his pigs to a pretty market. He has made a very bad bargain; he has managed his business in a very bad way. Pigs were for long a principal article of sale with rustics, and till recently the cottager looked to pay his rent by the sale of his pigs.
Is “bartholomew pigs” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.