oink

Pluraloinks

Formsoinks, oinking, oinked

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The grunting sound a pig makes, or an imitation of that sound.

   A single oink echoed across the farmyard at feeding time.

   The piglets answered their mother with a chorus of tiny oinks.

   Similargrunt

   Note

   A pig's noise can be turned on people. Protesters may answer police officers' demands with a chorus of oinks, making the same jeering move as the anti-chauvinist retort. In plain farmyard use the noun is countable (a single oink, a chorus of oinks), and chorus is its natural partner whenever many voices join in.

2. 2
   interjection

   Used in speech or writing to represent the grunting sound a pig makes.

   Oink! came the noise from behind the fence as the sow rooted in the mud.

   The picture book printed a big Oink under the drawing of the muddy hog.

   Note

   A word built to sound like what it names: it imitates the pig's grunt rather than descending from an older word. That same sound-word also serves as the noun (a chorus of oinks) and as the verb, which is fully regular (oinks, oinking, oinked). So the grunt can be voiced, counted or narrated without changing the spelling.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To make the characteristic grunting sound of a pig, or to imitate that sound.

   Hungry sows oink at the gate well before the morning feed arrives.

   The comedian oinked into the microphone to mock the heckler.

   Similargrunt

4. 4
   interjection

   Used to call out male chauvinism, playing on the insult 'male chauvinist pig.'

   Oink, one of the interns coughed when the boss told the new hire to fetch coffee.

   She fired back with a sharp oink the moment he questioned whether a woman could lead the team.

   Note

   Here the grunt becomes a retort, borrowed from the insult male chauvinist pig. It is usually doubled ("Oink, oink") and delivered as a pointed reply to a sexist remark. In Sandy Asher's Just like Jenny (1982), a mother uses it to let her husband know what he is being called. Speakers can even slot it into the insult itself, as in "such a male chauvinist oink, oink."

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