To give cold pig is a punishment inflicted on sluggards who lie too long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed clothes from them, and throwing cold water upon them.
From: Captain Grose's 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
A Pilgrimage to Ireland
19 hours ago
2 comments:
That's a pretty severe punishment for all concerned when you consider how long it would have taken the mattress to dry!
I seem to remember David Garrick complaining of a cold which he got through lying in damp sheets at Dunstable. So maybe it was quite commmon practice!
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