Link Centre Dictionary

pickle

UK/ˈpɪkəl/ US/ˈpɪkɫ̩/ fairly common informal slang uk us
noun (2) verb (1)

noun

1.

vegetables (especially cucumbers) preserved in brine or vinegar

2.

informal terms for a difficult situation

  • “he got into a terrible fix”
  • “he made a muddle of his marriage”
Synonyms

verb

1.

preserve in a pickling liquid

Origin

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”).

Phrases

  • bread-and-butter pickle
  • Christmas pickle
  • Dickel pickle
  • dill pickle
  • gammon and pickles
  • hunger is the best pickle
  • in a pickle
  • kosher pickle
  • pickle up

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.