Pestle definition

pĕsəl, pĕstəl
pestled pestles pestling
See word origin
Frequency:
A club-shaped, handheld tool for grinding or mashing substances in a mortar.
noun
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1
A club-shaped, round-headed stick used in a mortar to pound, crush, rub or grind things.
noun
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(archaic) A constable's or bailiff's staff; so called from its shape.

noun
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The leg and leg bone of an animal, especially of a pig.

A pestle of pork.

noun
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To pound, crush, rub or grind (things), as in a mortar with a pestle.
verb
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A large bar moved vertically to stamp or pound, as in a press or mill.
noun
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1
To pound, grind, or mash with or as if with a pestle.
verb
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1
A tool, usually club-shaped, used to pound or grind substances in a mortar.
noun
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1
Any of several tools for pounding, grinding, or stamping.
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To pound, grind, crush, etc. with or as with a pestle.
verb
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1
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A club-shaped, handheld tool for grinding or mashing substances in a mortar.
noun
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1
To use a pestle.
verb
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2

Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
pestle
Plural:
pestles

Origin of pestle

  • Middle English pestel from Old French from Latin pistillum

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Via Old French pestel, from Latin pistillum, from pÄ«nsō (“pound, beat"). Cognate to pesto.

    From Wiktionary

Pestle Sentence Examples

  • Even the Calaveras man is no exception, since his skull and his polished conical pestle, the latter made of stone more recent than the auriferous gravels, show him to have been of Digger Indian type.

  • Picumnus, a rustic deity (like Picus) and husband of Pomona, is specially concerned with the manuring of the soil and hence called Sterquilinus, while Pilumnus is the inventor of the pounding of grain, so named from the pestle (pi/um) used by bakers.

  • Use a round hand motion with your pestle to "squeeze" the full aroma and flavor from the fresh herbs and garlic.

  • We found pestle and mortars for grinding spices and herbs, decorated stones and a beautiful bowl and stone for refining other natural herbs.

  • One large basalt pestle constituted the only complete groundstone tool recovered this season.

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Words near pestle in the Dictionary