Etymology 1

Noun

1. A cucumber preserved in a solution, usually a brine or a vinegar syrup.

   A pickle goes well with a hamburger.

2. (Often in plural: pickles), any vegetable preserved in vinegar and consumed as relish.
3. The brine used for preserving food.

   This tub is filled with the pickle that we will put the small cucumbers into.

4. A difficult situation, peril.

   The climber found himself in a pickle when one of the rocks broke off.

5. An affectionate term for a mildly mischievous loved one
6. A rundown.

   Jones was caught in a pickle between second and third.

7. A children’s game with three participants that emulates a baseball rundown

   The boys played pickle in the front yard for an hour.

8. A penis.

Verb

1. To preserve food in a salt, sugar or vinegar solution.

   We pickled the remainder of the crop.

2. To remove high-temperature scale and oxidation from metal with heated (often sulphuric) industrial acid.

   The crew will pickle the fittings in the morning.

3. To serialize.
   • 2005, Peter Norton et al, Beginning Python

     You can now restore the pickled data. If you like, close your Python interpreter and open a new instance, to convince yourself...

   • 2008, Marty Alchin, Pro Django

     To illustrate how this would work in practice, consider a field designed to store and retrieve a pickled copy of any arbitrary Python object.

Noun

1. A kernel, grain
2. A bit, small quantity