couldn't stop a pig in a passage
A Yorkshire idiom describing someone who is severely bow-legged — their legs so curved that even a pig could pass between them unchecked.
Definitions
A Yorkshire idiom describing someone who is severely bow-legged — their legs so curved that even a pig could pass between them unchecked. Typically deployed in good-natured ribbing, it reflects the British tradition of mocking physical traits with elaborately specific rural imagery. The phrase is largely obsolete outside older Yorkshire dialect speakers; in active use it would function as a teasing put-down with a comedic country flavour.
The old farrier walked in and someone muttered he couldn't stop a pig in a passage — legs bent like a wishbone.
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(Yorkshire, idiomatic) To be bow-legged.
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Semantically related
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(Yorkshire, dialect) Stuck on one's back, unable to get up.
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(Scotland) Enough to fill a pig .
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British slang meaning to go away or get lost — equivalent to 'sod off' or 'piss off.' The 'pig' substitutes as a softened expletive element, making the phrase slightly less aggressive in tone while retaining the dismissive intent. Used in British informal speech.
- 59%
(Ireland, UK) An allegory for a backward rural society.