noun / verb

pickle

PIK-ul/ˈpɪkl/

Food preserved in brine or vinegar, or preserving food this way.

The jar holds pickles submerged in brine.

An open glass jar of whole pickled cucumbers submerged in pale brine, with one olive-green pickle and a cut half beside it.

Etymology

Pickle probably comes from Middle Dutch pekel, “brine,” or a related word. The name of the salty preserving liquid shifted to the cucumber preserved in it.

In context

TED3:10

I had a friend who worked at a pickle factory, and the cucumbers would come flying down this conveyer belt

Robert Neuwirth: The power of the informal economy

More examples

He added a pickle to the sandwich.
The jars held several kinds of pickles.
They pickled the vegetables before winter.

Forms

pickle · pickles · pickled · pickling

pickled adjective — preserved in brine or vinegar

Similar words

preserve: Keep food from spoiling by any suitable method.
ferment: Use microbial activity, which not all pickling requires.