high on the hog

An allusion to the best and costliest cuts of meat from a hog, considered to be parts above the belly such as the loin, rather than lower parts such as the feet, knuckles, hocks, belly, and jowls. US, late 1800s; popularized 1940s. The variant forms – live/eat and on/off – are attested since at least the 1930s. However, decades earlier is the phrase on the hog, originally on the hog train meaning someone living on little expense.

• "Ever since his promotion, they’ve been living high on the hog."
• "With all the tenderloin, spareribs and backbones, we lived “high off the hog”."
• "Down our way there is a favorite expression used quite often—“eating high on the hog”. That is what our competitors have been doing…"
• "The synthetic belle wins the prize and her creators are eating high off the hog until the nation’s Press demands a look at the original."
• "If she was pulling this scam off all that time, I think she'd be living a little higher on the hog, don't you?"

• cream of the crop
• high life
• live large
• upper crust
• well to do