Still Sow

A man cunning and selfish; one wise in his own interest; one who avoids talking at meals that he may enjoy his food the better. So called from the old proverb, “The still sow eats the wash” or “draff.”

“We do not act that often jest and langh;

ʹTis old but true, ‘Still swine eat all the draugh.ʹ”

Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 2.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.