swill n : wet feed (especially for pigs) consisting of mostly kitchen waste mixed with water or skimmed or sour milk [syn: slop, slops, pigswill, pigwash]

1 feed pigs [syn: slop]

2 drink large quantities of (liquid, especially alcoholic drink) [syn: swill down]

English

Pronunciation

• /swɪl/
• Rhymes with: -ɪl

Noun

swill

1. a mixture of solid and liquid food scraps fed to pigs etc; especially kitchen waste for this purpose
2. any disgusting or distasteful liquid

   I cannot believe anyone could drink this swill.

3. a large quantity of liquid drunk at one swallow

   He took a swill of his drink and tried to think of words.

4. In the context of "Ultimate Frisbee": A badly-thrown pass
5. Budweiser, Utica club, Piels or other cheap beer.

Verb

to swill

1. to eat or drink greedily or to excess
2. to wash something by flooding with water

Swill has several uses:

• Swill can refer to any cheap, usually poor-tasting beverage, especially beer or liquor of many kinds, or to food unfit for human consumption. This usage is likely derived from the term pig-swill, which is a generic term for waste products mixed together into pig feed. Pigs are notoriously indiscriminate in their eating habits.

• Swill can refer to grain left over from distillation or brewing processes, the process of which also removes much of the nutritional quality of the grain. Milk from cows that have been fed this kind of grain byproduct as an exclusive diet is known as swill milk and is of poor quality.

• Swill is a fictional low-price mineral water popularized in 1977 by a spoof commercial starring then-Saturday Night Live'' cast member Bill Murray. Swill prided itself on being "the water that's dredged from Lake Erie." According to Murray's endorsement, Swill was the only thing that could "wash down a hearty meal...that tends to just lay in your stomach." The advertisement also featured footage of Swill employees bottling their product in the lake, and of Murray pouring the viscous, dirt-filled concoction over ice, telling us "...I like mine with a twist." A closeup at the end shows the bottle is a parody of the one used for Perrier.

• Swill is a term for a poor throw in the game of ultimate.

• Swill can refer to the act of quickly washing your face usually without soap and usually with cold water to refresh yourself , probably originating in the North West of England.

Other uses

The term "pig swill" has on occasion been used metaphorically to mean "nonsense".

External links

• Saturday Night Live Transcripts - Swill

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