🥒 A preserved vegetable 😬 A difficult situation 🥒 To preserve food 💾 To save data 💾 A saved file

to pickle

9 2.9

To preserve vegetables in vinegar or salty water for later eating

verb
/ˈpɪkəl/

: encurtir

She enjoys pickling vegetables with herbs to create unique flavors.

Examples

The second part is to start pickling the shallot.
They even used to pickle the bodies to have enough food for winter.

Wild Country (2005)
I'm pickling my own cucumbers.

Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)
Without modern preservation, salted or pickled beef and pork offered the only opportunity for any form of meat.

Academic text (2007)
Yesterday, I left a bowl of pickled peaches in the refrigerator to chill for my supper.

Fiction book (1996)
A grocer's is where you can buy pickled cabbage from a barrel.

Fiction book (2001)
"Harvest the potatoes, pickle the cabbage, put up jam," Laima nods in agreement.

Fiction book (1998)
This is twice-cooked pork with shredded, pickled cabbage.

Where the Truth Lies (2005)
I am pickling my own cucumbers in a vinegar solution for the summer.
After gathering fresh produce, he plans on pickling the green beans and carrots.

Synonyms

to souse

vsto pickle

1 8.9

To soak meat or fish in a salty liquid before cooking

preserves food long term using vinegar or brine and often spices

Antonyms

to spoil

17 1.6

To go bad and not be safe to eat

Idioms

in a pickle

Informal

15 8.3

In trouble and not sure what to do

to tickle someone's pickle

Slang

1 9.9

Make someone feel very happy and amused

pickle up one's ass

Offensive

9.9

To feel very irritated or upset about something small

Compounds

dill pickle

4 1.6

A cucumber that people keep in salt water or vinegar and flavor with dill

sweet pickle

1 2.7

A vegetable kept in sugar and vinegar that tastes sweet and sour

pickle barrel

1 3.1

A large wooden barrel that holds cucumbers or vegetables in vinegar

pickle relish

1 2.0

A sweet, chopped topping of cucumbers in vinegar used on burgers and hot dogs

bread and butter pickle

1 3.1

A sweet thin slice of cucumber kept in vinegar, sugar, and onion

How Sour

to ferment

Specialized

31 5.5

to pickle

9 2.9

to marinate

29 3.9

Surface Forms

pickle infinitive

pickled past

pickled past participle

pickling present participle

pickles third person singular

Etymology

Pickle comes from an old Dutch word pekel that means 'brine', the salty liquid used to keep food. To pickle something is to soak it in that liquid to preserve and add flavor, which is why the verb means to save food in vinegar or brine.