cold pig

noun, verb — 2 senses

noun

Dated, Slang The act of throwing cold water over a sleeping individual to wake them.

Pedestres tossed off the clothes and jumped out of bed as if they had dealt him a "cold pig:" — he bounced between them all to the other side of the room, and hastily thrust himself into that which was offered to him.1836, Pedestres (pseud.), Sir Clavileno Woodenpeg (knight of Snowdon, pseud.), A pedestrian tour of thirteen hundred and forty-seven miles through Wales and England (page 270)

verb

Dated, Slang To throw cold water all over a sleeping individual's bed and body to wake them.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.