porky

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɔː(ɹ).ki/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ki

Etymology 1

From pork +‎ -y.

Adjective

porky (comparative porkier, superlative porkiest)

1. Resembling or characteristic of pork.
   • 2010, Victor J. Banis, The Blood of Love, page 113:

     It was tender and delicious, with a kind of porky taste you didn't often get from supermarket meats.

2. (slang) Rather fat; chubby.
   • 1989, Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers:

     In front of Lister a small red-haired man, with a porky roll of flesh above his towel-top, was examining a line of girls.

Synonyms

• (rather fat): chubby, chunky, tubby

Derived terms

• porky pie

Translations

rather fat

• Bulgarian: дебел (bg) (debel)
• Finnish: tanakka (fi), pullea (fi), pulska (fi)
• Greek: παχύς (el) (pachýs), χοντρός (el) (chontrós)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: småfet, trivelig (euphemism), stutttjukk

• Russian: откормленный (ru) m (otkormlennyj)
• Swedish: fläskig, knubbig (sv), rundnätt (sv), småfet (sv)

Noun

porky

1. (MLE, slang) singulative of pork (“law enforcement”)

Etymology 2

Clipping of pork pie.

Noun

porky (plural porkies)

1. (Cockney rhyming slang) A lie.
   • 2007, Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, →ISBN, page 203:

     When she turned up at the lab, she gave us a sprawling prepared presentation relying heavily on anecdotal evidence, where it wasn't relying on skewed statistics, unfounded claims and outright porkies.

2. (Cockney rhyming slang, in the plural) An eye.
   • 2015, Jeremy Cameron, Brown Bred in Wengen:

     Fucked if I know, I never even clapped my little porkies on him before.

Etymology 3

Clipping of porcupine.

Noun

porky (plural porkies)

1. (informal, childish) A porcupine.
   • 1929, Forest and Stream, page 58:

     The irate Ranger killed thirteen porcupines chewing away on his front porch, and still they came, the salt proving an irresistible lure. In this same district a porky pulled the most impudent stunt of all.

   • 2000, Warner Shedd, “A “Pig,” Perhaps, but Not a Hog: The Porcupine”, in Owls Aren’t Wise & Bats Aren’t Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife, New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, page 52:

     Although porcupines lack the ability to throw their quills, they do have the capacity to raise and lower them at will. When threatened, a porky elevates its quills so that it bristles like some sort of mammalian cactus with giant spines.

   • 2021, Ron Paliskis, “The Beasts at the lake”, in Ron: A Coke Alley Boy, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Dorrance Publishing Co, →ISBN, section “Porcupines”, page 59:

     He snarled, and the porky looked to be running away but swung his tail and put about twenty-five quills in the side of our dog’s face.