pickle

Meaning

Noun

1. (Australia, Canada, US, countable, uncountable) A cucumber preserved in a solution, usually a brine or a vinegar syrup.
2. (countable, in-plural, often, uncountable) Any vegetable preserved in vinegar and consumed as relish.
3. (UK, countable, uncountable) A sweet, vinegary pickled chutney popular in Britain.
4. (countable, uncountable) The brine used for preserving food.
5. (countable, informal, uncountable) A difficult situation; peril.
6. (countable, endearing, uncountable) A mildly mischievous loved one.
7. (countable, uncountable) A rundown.
8. (uncountable) A children’s game with three participants that emulates a baseball rundown
9. (countable, slang, uncountable) A penis.
10. (countable, slang, uncountable) A pipe for smoking methamphetamine.
11. (countable, uncountable) 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.
12. (countable, uncountable) In an optical landing system, the hand-held controller connected to the lens, or apparatus on which the lights are mounted.

Verb

1. (ergative, transitive) To preserve food (or sometimes other things) in a salt, sugar or vinegar solution.
2. (transitive) To remove high-temperature scale and oxidation from metal with heated (often sulphuric) industrial acid.
3. To serialize.
4. (historical) To pour brine over a person after flogging them, as a method of punishment.

Verb

1. (Northern-England, Scotland, ambitransitive) To eat sparingly.
2. (Northern-England, Scotland, ambitransitive) To pilfer.

Synonyms

salt

🧂

cure

preserve

souse

marinate

brine

mess

gherkin

conserve

corn

🌽

marinade

make sour

putz

fix

member

jam

pecker

plight

kettle of fish

naughty boy

prick

keep

dong

muddle

ferment

penis

hole

🕳️

dick

puzzlement

retain

scrape

soak

solution

soup

🍲

steep

stew

🍲

stock

strip

suspense

trouble

wang

worry

salt down

soak in

preserve food

formaldehyde solution

pigs’ feet

vinegar sause

jamoke

shlong

Translations

cornichon

pekelen

pepinillo

saler

🧂

pökeln

turşu

😫

inmaken

Lümmel

🧑‍🌾

zouten

🧂

escabeche

straatbengel

bengel

rekel

snotaap

vlegel

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpɪkl̩/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: pikel

Cognate with Scots: pikkill

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: Piekele

Cognate with Dutch: pekel

Cognate with Low German: pekel

Cognate with German: Pökel

Cognate with Scots: pickil

In summary

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”).