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What is "sty"

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sty
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
sty
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Not only are their sties roomy and warm, but they are allowed to forage around in a large orchard.
▪ She penned them in a sty and gave them acorns to eat.
▪ The sow was very angry when we took her little boys away and tried to clamber over the wall of the sty.
▪ Twenty years cleaning up his sty and filling his trough and he's off.
▪ We all lived in this sty, just off Wimbledon Hill.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sty

Sty \Sty\, n. [For older styan, styanye, understood as sty on eye, AS. st[=i]gend (sc. e['a]ge eye), properly, rising, or swelling (eye), p. p. of st[=i]gan to rise. See Sty, v. i.] (Med.) An inflamed swelling or boil on the edge of the eyelid.

Sty

Sty \Sty\, n.; pl. Sties. [Written also stigh.] [AS. stigu, fr. st[=i]gan to rise; originally, probably, a place into which animals climbed or went up. [root]164. See Sty, v. i., and cf. Steward.]

  1. A pen or inclosure for swine.

  2. A place of bestial debauchery.

    To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.
    --Milton.

Sty

Sty \Sty\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stied; p. pr. & vb. n. Stying.] To shut up in, or as in, a sty.
--Shak.

Sty

Sty \Sty\, v. i. [OE. stien, sti?en, AS. st[=i]gan to rise; akin to D. stijgen, OS. & OHG. st[=i]gan, G. steigen, Icel. st[=i]ga, Sw. stiga, Dan. stige, Goth. steigan, L. vestigium footstep, Gr. ? to walk, to go, Skr. stigh to mount. Cf. Distich, Stair steps, Stirrup, Sty a boil, a pen for swine, Vestige.] To soar; to ascend; to mount. See Stirrup. [Obs.]

With bolder wing shall dare aloft to sty, To the last praises of this Faery Queene.
--Spenser.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
sty

"pen for pigs," Old English sti, stig "hall, pen" (as in sti-fearh "sty-pig"), from Proto-Germanic *stijan (cognates: Old Norse stia "sty, kennel," Danish sti, Swedish stia "pen for swine, sheep, goats, etc.," Old High German stiga "pen for small cattle"). Meaning "filthy hovel" is from 1590s.

sty

"inflamed swelling in the eyelid," 1610s, probably a back-formation from Middle English styany (as though sty on eye), mid-15c., from Old English stigend "sty," literally "riser," from present participle of stigan "go up, rise," from Proto-Germanic *stigan, from PIE root *steigh- "to stride, step, rise" (see stair).

sty

"go up, ascend" (obsolete), Old English stigan (past tense stah, past participle stigun, common Germanic (Old Norse, Old Frisian stiga, Middle Dutch stighen, Old Saxon, Old High German stigan, German steigen, Gothic steigan), from PIE root *steigh- "go, rise, stride, step, walk" (see stair).

Wiktionary
sty

Etymology 1 n. 1 A pen or enclosure for swine. 2 (context figurative English) A messy, dirty or debauched place. vb. 1 To place in, or as if in, a sty. 2 To live in a sty, or any messy or dirty place. Etymology 2

alt. (label en obsolete) To ascend, rise up, climb. (9th-17th c.) n. (label en British dialectal) A ladder. vb. (label en obsolete) To ascend, rise up, climb. (9th-17th c.) Etymology 3

alt. (label en disease) An inflammation of the eyelid. n. (label en disease) An inflammation of the eyelid.

WordNet
sty

  1. n. an infection of the sebaceous gland of the eyelid [syn: stye, hordeolum, eye infection]

  2. a pen for swine [syn: pigsty, pigpen]

  3. [also: stied]

Wikipedia
Sty

A sty or pigsty is a small-scale outdoor enclosure for raising domestic pigs. It is sometimes referred to as a hog pen, hog parlor, pigpen, pig parlor, or pig-cote. Pigsties are generally fenced areas of bare dirt and/or mud. "Sty" and "pigsty" and "pigpen" are used as derogatory descriptions of dirty messy areas. There are three contributing reasons that pigs, generally clean animals, create such a living environment:

  • Pigs are voracious eaters and will eat all the plants in the enclosure until there is nothing left to control erosion.
  • The pig is a rooting animal and will dig for food in the enclosure, further disturbing the soil.
  • Pigs do not regulate temperature by sweating which means that they must be provided with water or mud in which they can control their own body temperature.

A large-scale enclosure for raising pigs is generally called a hog lot. Unlike a sty which would be found on a mixed farm, a hog lot is usually a dedicated facility.

Sty (disambiguation)

Sty and similar can mean:

  • Sty, an enclosure for raising pigs
  • STY, an alternate socket name for GNU Screen
  • STY is the station code for Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway railway station
  • Pigsty (film), a film by Pasolini
  • Pig Sty, a television series
  • "Pigsty", a song by Bayside from their album, Cult

Usage examples of "sty".

Orderly rows of their big butterfly sleeping tents, and among them supply sheds, horse pens, armory and smithy and cooking tents, sties and folds for the pigs and sheep they brought along to eat, all the ordinary appurtenances of military camps.

When a boulder flattened a stock pen or fold or sty and freed its contents, the horses and sheep and pigs scampered hither and yon, bleating, squealing, neighing, butting, kicking.

From the perspective of a classical historian, German scholar Hans Stier has concurred that agreement over basic data and divergence of details suggest credibility, because fabricated accounts tend to be fully consistent and harmonized.

German scholar Hans Stier has concurred that agreement over basic data and divergence of details suggest credibility, because fabricated accounts tend to be fully consistent and harmonized.

Karen Davy, Darlene Delillo, Gail Dubov, Tom Egner, Seth Fleischman, Josh Frank, Jane Friedman, Lisa Gallagher, Cathy Hemming, Angela Leigh, Kim Lewis, Brian McSharry, Judy Madonia, Michael Morrison, Gena Pearson, Jan Parrish, Chadd Reese, Rhonda Rose, Pete Soper, Debbie Stier, Andrea Sventora, Bruce Unck, and Donna Waitkus.

Karen Davy, Darlene Delillo, Gail Dubov, Tom Egner, Seth Fleishman, Josh Frank, Jane Friedman, Heather Gould, Brian Grogan, Cathy Hemming, Angela Leigh, Kim Lewis, Selina McLemore, Brian McSharry, Judy Madonia, Michael Morrison, Jan Parrish, Shelly Perron, Chadd Reese, Rhonda Rose, Pete Soper, Michael Spradlin, Debbie Stier, Andrea Sventora, Bruce Unck, and Donna Waitkus.

I also owe a tremendous debt to Michael Morrison for believing in the books, Lisa Gallagher for watching my back, Debbie Stier for her much-needed calming influence and David Brown, the man behind the curtain of those insane tours.

I also owe another round of thanks to Michael Morrison, Lisa Gallagher, Debbie Stier, and David Brown.

For in its heart are growing thick the filthy dens and slums, Where human forms shall rot away in sties for swine unmeet, And ghostly faces shall be seen unfit for any street -- Rotting out, rotting out, For the lack of air and meat -- In dens of vice and horror that are hidden from the street.

The place was a sty, and not one of these Celts had the breeding to even notice.

For fools that fond and foolish sigh, That wert thou foul as hog in sty Fair women must unto thee fly.

At least the cold kept down the smellfrom backyard privies, chicken coops, pigeon houses, pig sties.

The cucumbers cumber the ground,--great yellow, over-ripe objects, no more to be compared to the crisp beauty of their youth than is the fat swine of the sty to the clean little pig.

He groaneth as our boar that lies in sty: Other disport of him right none have I, I may not please him in no manner case.

Those massed indifferents will learn to quake: Now meanwhile is another mass awake, Once denser than the grunters of the sty.