Now chiefly dial. Forms: see SWINE and STY; also 5 swinysty, swynysty, 6 swines-stie. [f. SWINE + STY sb. Cf. MDu. swijnstie, ON. svínstí.] A pigsty.
1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 9002. Als mykelle difference … suld be Bitwene heven and swilk a cete, Als es bitwene a kynges palays And a swynsty.
1423. Cov. Leet Bk., 59. Þai orden þat … all þe pryves & swynesties þeron be done away.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 483/2. Swyyne kote, howse for swyyn (K. swinysty, or sty).
1587. Holinshed, Chron., III. 83/2. To reuoke the king … from the swines-stie of vice to the statelie throne of vertue.
1647. Trapp, Comm. Heb. xii. 16. Many such Edomites … now-adaies that prefer earth before heaven, a swine-sty before a sanctuary.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, II. 13. There are waters … snelling as offensively as a swine-stie.
1857. Dufferin, Lett. High Lat., xii. (ed. 3), 370. She … conceals the Jarl and his companion in a hole dug for this purpose, in the swine-stye, and covered over with wood and litter.
1887. Morris, Odyssey, X. 389. She opened the swine-stye door And drave them out.
