noun

shoat

SHOHT/ʃoʊt/

A young pig, especially one that has been weaned.

The shoat eats from a trough beside the other pigs.

A small juvenile pig independently eating dry pig-feed pellets from a low trough, with its young proportions and solid-food diet emphasizing a weaned pig rather than a nursing piglet or mature hog.

Etymology

Shoat may come from a Low German word; West Flemish schote, “pig under one year old,” offers a possible comparison. Whether these words form a related group, and that group's origin, remains unknown.

In context

Tasting History with Max Miller1:50

it is for barbecued shoat, and a shoat is a pig that has been weaned so like not quite a piglet but not quite a full-grown pig

The History of Barbecue

More examples

After weaning, the shoats moved to a separate pen.
We bought two shoats to raise on our farm.
A muddy shoat squeezed through a gap in the fence.

Forms

shoat · shoats

Similar words

piglet: A young pig, including one that is still nursing.
pig: A general term for the animal, regardless of age.