pickle

== English == === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈpɪkəl/, [ˈpɪkɫ̩] Rhymes: -ɪkəl === Etymology 1 === 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”). ==== Alternative forms ==== pickel (obsolete and rare) ==== Noun ==== pickle (countable and uncountable, plural pickles) (chiefly US, Canada, Australia) A cucumber preserved in a solution, usually a brine or a vinegar syrup. (often in the plural) Any vegetable preserved in vinegar and consumed as relish. (UK) A sweet, vinegary pickled chutney popular in Britain. The brine used for preserving food. (informal) A difficult situation; peril. Synonyms: see Thesaurus:difficult situation (endearing) A mildly mischievous loved one. (baseball) A rundown. (uncountable) A children’s game with three participants that emulates a baseball rundown (slang) A penis. Synonyms: see Thesaurus:penis (slang) A pipe for smoking methamphetamine. (metalworking) 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 colour. In an optical landing system, the hand-held controller connected to the lens, or apparatus on which the lights are mounted. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Descendants ===== → Dutch: pickles → French: pickles → Irish: picil → Korean: 피클 (pikeul) → Portuguese: picles → Spanish: pickles, picle → Welsh: picil ===== Translations ===== ===== See also ===== piccalilli ==== Verb ==== pickle (third-person singular simple present pickles, present participle pickling, simple past and past participle pickled) (transitive, ergative) To preserve food (or sometimes other things) in a salt, sugar or vinegar solution. Synonym: pickle up Hypernym: put up For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pickle. (transitive) To remove high-temperature scale and oxidation from metal with heated (often sulphuric) industrial acid. (programming, in Python) To serialize. (historical) To pour brine over a person after flogging them, as a method of punishment. 1756, Thomas Thistlewood, diary, quoted in 2001, Glyne A. Griffith, Caribbean Cultural Identities, Bucknell University Press (→ISBN), page 38: On Wednesday 26 May, […] I had [an enslaved man] flogged and pickled and then made Hector shit in his mouth. […] In July, […] Gave [another enslaved man] a moderate whipping, pickled him well, made Hector shit in his mouth, […] ===== Derived terms ===== pickle up pickled pickling repickle ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 2 === Perhaps from Scottish pickle, apparently from pick +‎ -le (diminutive suffix). Compare Scots pickil. ==== Noun ==== pickle (plural pickles) (Northern England, Scotland) A kernel; a grain (of salt, sugar, etc.) (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 ==== pickle (third-person singular simple present pickles, present participle pickling, simple past and past participle pickled) (Northern England, Scotland, ambitransitive) To eat sparingly. (Northern England, Scotland, ambitransitive) To pilfer. === Anagrams === pelick == French == === Etymology === Borrowed from English pickle. === Pronunciation === === Noun === pickle m (plural pickles) pickle (kind of chutney popular in Britain)