pickle
/ˈpɪkəl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms pickles pickling pickled pickel
- noun (chiefly US, Canada, Australia) A cucumber preserved in a solution, usually a brine or a vinegar syrup. “A pickle goes well with a hamburger.”
- noun (often in the plural) Any vegetable preserved in vinegar and consumed as relish.
- noun (UK) A sweet, vinegary pickled chutney popular in Britain.
- noun The brine used for preserving food. “This tub is filled with the pickle that we will put the small cucumbers into.”
- noun (informal) A difficult situation; peril. “The climber found himself in a pickle when one of the rocks broke off.”
- noun (endearing) A mildly mischievous loved one.
- noun (baseball) A rundown. “Jones was caught in a pickle between second and third.”
- noun (uncountable) A children’s game with three participants that emulates a baseball rundown “The boys played pickle in the front yard for an hour.”
- verb (transitive, ergative) To preserve food (or sometimes other things) in a salt, sugar or vinegar solution. “We pickled the remainder of the crop.”
- verb (transitive) To remove high-temperature scale and oxidation from metal with heated (often sulphuric) industrial acid. “The crew will pickle the fittings in the morning.”
- verb (programming, in Python) To serialize.
- verb (historical) To pour brine over a person after flogging them, as a method of punishment.
- noun (Northern England, Scotland) A kernel; a grain (of salt, sugar, etc.)
- noun (Northern England, Scotland) A small or indefinite quantity or amount (of something); a little, a bit, a few. Usually in partitive construction, frequently without "of"; a single grain or kernel of wheat, barley, oats, sand or dust.
- verb (Northern England, Scotland, ambitransitive) To eat sparingly.
- verb (Northern England, Scotland, ambitransitive) To pilfer.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
ass in a sling bind bucket of syrup calvary cauldron cross cross to bear difficulty dilemma dire straits doghouse fix hole jam kettle kettle of fish ordeal pinch plight predicament mess muddle
Etymology
From Middle English pikel (“spicy sauce served with meat or fish”), borrowed from Middle Dutch, Middle Low German pekel (“brine”). Cognate with Scots pikkill (“salt liquor, brine”), Saterland Frisian Piekele (“pickle, brine”), Dutch pekel (“pickle, brine”), Low German pekel, peckel, pickel, bickel (“pickle, brine”), German Pökel (“pickle, brine”), Icelandic pækill (“brine”).
Perhaps from Scottish pickle, apparently from pick + -le (diminutive suffix). Compare Scots pickil.
Webster’s 1913
- noun See Picle.
- noun Any article of food which has been preserved in brine or in vinegar.
- noun A bath of dilute sulphuric or nitric acid, etc., to remove burnt sand, scale rust, etc., from the surface of castings, or other articles of metal, or to brighten them or improve their color.
- verb To preserve or season in pickle; to treat with some kind of pickle; as, to pickle herrings or cucumbers.
Etymology [Cf. D. pekel. Probably a dim. fr. Pick, v. t., alluding to the cleaning of the fish.]
Etymology [Prob. fr. pightel or pingle.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pickle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details