[pik-uh
l] 
noun, verb, -led, -ling.| 1. | a cucumber that has been preserved in brine, vinegar, or the like. |
| 2. | Often, pickles. any other vegetable, as cauliflower, celery, etc., preserved in vinegar and eaten as a relish. |
| 3. | something preserved in a brine or marinade. |
| 4. | a liquid usually prepared with salt or vinegar for preserving or flavoring fish, meat, vegetables, etc.; brine or marinade. |
| 5. | Metallurgy. an acid or other chemical solution in which metal objects are dipped to remove oxide scale or other adhering substances. |
| 6. | Informal. a troublesome or awkward situation; predicament: I was in a pickle after the check bounced. |
| 7. | Informal. a sour, disagreeable person. |
| 8. | to preserve or steep in brine or other liquid. |
| 9. | to treat with a chemical solution, as for the purpose of cleaning. |
| 10. | to give a pale, streaked finish to (wood) by applying and partly removing paint or by bleaching, as to give an appearance of age. |
| 11. | Slang. to store; prepare for long-range storage: Let's pickle these old cars for a few years. |
| pick·le (pĭk'əl) n.
[Middle English pikle, highly seasoned sauce, probably from Middle Dutch pekel, pickle, brine.] Word History: Trade with the Low Countries across the North Sea was important to England in the later Middle Ages, and it is perhaps because of this trade that we have the word pickle. Middle English pikel, the ancestor of our word, is first recorded around 1400 with the meaning "a spicy sauce or gravy served with meat or fowl." This is a different sense from the one the word brings to mind now, but it is somewhat related in sense to its possible Middle Dutch source pekel, a solution, such as spiced brine, for preserving and flavoring food. After coming into English the word pickle expanded its sense range in several ways. It was applied, as it had been in Middle Dutch, to a pickling solution. Later pickle was used to refer to something so treated, such as a cucumber. The word also took on a figurative sense, "a troublesome situation," perhaps under the influence of a similar Dutch usage in the phrase in de pekel zitten, "sit in the pickle," and iemand in de pekel laten zitten, "let someone sit in the pickle." |