sewer hog

sewer hog

1. slang Anyone forced or employed to dig trenches or ditches. Prisoners in that area were forced to work as sewer hogs until about 1945, having dug drainage ditches alongside the highway from one end of the state to the other. My father wasn't very proud of having to work as a sewer hog, but it put food on our table as kids, and none of us ever cared more than that.
2. One of a breed of wild pigs rumored in urban legend to inhabit the sewers of Hampstead, London. My brother always told me scary stories about the sewer hogs to keep me away from open manhole covers.
See also: hog, sewer
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

sewer hog

n. a ditch digger; a sewer worker. A sewer hog doesn’t get a lot of chances to pal around with the gentry, but the pay’s plenty good.
See also: hog, sewer
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • sewer
  • against (one's) will
  • against one's will
  • against will
  • against your will
  • force or an animal from
  • sweatshop
  • sweat-shop
  • force of circumstance
  • be put out to grass
References in periodicals archive
When a wall of super-heavy debris was encountered, a Brenford Sewer Hog was called in.
Tackling manhole rehab in Laredo
At that point Villalobos learned of Sewer Hog, sewer-cleaning technology that uses a 350-gallon-per-minute (gpm) water jet at 2,000 pounds of pressure to dislodge obstructions.
Dirty work
The Sewer Hog Model 100 is a multi purpose, trailer-mounted sewer cleaning system that is both closed-loop and non-odor emitting.
Garner
The proven patented process includes the Sewer Hog [TM] which is designed to clean large diameter sewers quickly and efficiently without the need of by-pass pumping or stopping to dewater.
Garner
The proven patented process includes the Sewer Hog TM which is designed to clean large diameter sewers quickly and efficiently without the need of by-pass pumping or stopping to dewater.
Garner