Pickle Definition

pĭkəl

pickled, pickles, pickling

noun

pickles

A cucumber preserved in such a solution.

Webster's New World

Any brine, vinegar, or spicy solution used to preserve or marinate food.

Webster's New World

A chemical bath used to clear metal of scale, preserve wood, etc.

Webster's New World

An awkward or difficult situation; plight.

Webster's New World

A rundown.

American Heritage

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

verb

pickled, pickles, pickling

To treat with or preserve in a pickle solution.

Webster's New World

To treat (metal) in a chemical bath.

American Heritage

To preserve food in a salt, sugar or vinegar solution.

We pickled the remainder of the crop.

Wiktionary

To remove high-temperature scale and oxidation from metal with heated (often sulphuric) industrial acid.

The crew will pickle the fittings in the morning.

Wiktionary

(programming) (in the Python programming language) To serialize.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

Other Word Forms of Pickle

Singular:

pickle

Plural:

From Middle English pikel, pykyl, pekille, pigell (“spicy sauce served with meat or fish"), from Middle Dutch pekel (“brine"). Cognate with Scots pikkill (“salt liquor, brine"), Eastern Frisian pekel, päkel (“pickle, brine"), Dutch pekel (“pickle, brine"), Low German pekel, peckel, pickel, bickel (“pickle, brine"), German Pökel (“pickle, brine").

From Wiktionary
Middle English pikle highly seasoned sauce probably from Middle Dutch pekel pickle, brine perhaps akin to Middle Dutch peken to prick, pierce and English pick

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Perhaps from Scottish pickle 'to trifle, pilfer'

From Wiktionary