Library / English Dictionary

PICKLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Vegetables (especially cucumbers) preserved in brine or vinegar

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("pickle" is a kind of...):

relish (spicy or savory condiment)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pickle"):

gherkin (any of various small cucumbers pickled whole)

caper (pickled flower buds used as a pungent relish in various dishes and sauces)

dill pickle (pickle preserved in brine or vinegar flavored with dill seed)

sweet pickle (pickle cured in brine and preserved in sugar and vinegar)

Derivation:

pickle (preserve in a pickling liquid)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Informal terms for a difficult situation

Example:

he made a muddle of his marriage

Synonyms:

fix; hole; jam; kettle of fish; mess; muddle; pickle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("pickle" is a kind of...):

difficulty (a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pickle"):

dog's breakfast; dog's dinner (a poor job; a mess)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Preserve in a pickling liquid

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "pickle" is one way to...):

keep; preserve (prevent (food) from rotting)

Domain category:

cookery; cooking; preparation (the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

The chefs pickle the vegetables

Derivation:

pickle (vegetables (especially cucumbers) preserved in brine or vinegar)

Credits

 Context examples: 

"If you mean libel, I'd say so, and not talk about labels, as if Papa was a pickle bottle," advised Jo, laughing.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Very clever were some of their productions, pasteboard guitars, antique lamps made of old-fashioned butter boats covered with silver paper, gorgeous robes of old cotton, glittering with tin spangles from a pickle factory, and armor covered with the same useful diamond shaped bits left in sheets when the lids of preserve pots were cut out.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

No sooner had the guest paid the usual stale compliments and bowed himself out, than Jenny, under pretense of asking an important question, informed Mr. Davis, the teacher, that Amy March had pickled limes in her desk.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Little Teddy bore a charmed life, for nothing ever happened to him, and Jo never felt any anxiety when he was whisked up into a tree by one lad, galloped off on the back of another, or supplied with sour russets by his indulgent papa, who labored under the Germanic delusion that babies could digest anything, from pickled cabbage to buttons, nails, and their own small shoes.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Well, they went to the bottom, and a nice mermaid welcomed them, but was much grieved on finding the box of headless knights, and kindly pickled them in brine, hoping to discover the mystery about them, for being a woman, she was curious.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)