to drive one's hogs to market
Preserved but no longer current.
To snore very loudly. To hear as a hog in harvest. In at one ear and out at the other; hear without paying attention. Giles Firmin says, "If you call hogs out of the harvest stubble, they will just lift up their heads to listen, and fall to their shack again." {Real Christian, 1670.
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 “to drive one's hogs to market” mean?
To snore very loudly. To hear as a hog in harvest. In at one ear and out at the other; hear without paying attention. Giles Firmin says, "If you call hogs out of the harvest stubble, they will just lift up their heads to listen, and fall to their shack again." {Real Christian, 1670.
Is “to drive one's hogs to market” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.