名詞 pickle:

1. vegetables (especially cucumbers) preserved in brine or vinegar
2. informal terms for a difficult situation
   同義詞：fix, hole, jam, mess, muddle, kettle of fish

動詞 pickle:

1. preserve in a pickling liquid

1. She's a real little pickle!
   她真是個小調(diào)皮！
2. The dish was accompanied by a variety of pickles.
   這盤菜配有什錦泡菜。
3. By this time, he was hopelessly pickled.
   到這時他已經(jīng)爛醉如泥了。
4. He had some mixed pickles and rice for supper.
   他晚飯吃了一些什錦泡菜和米飯。

pick.le

n.（名詞）
An edible product, such as a cucumber, that has been preserved and flavored in a solution of brine or vinegar.
腌菜，泡菜：一種在鹽水或醋溶液中保存和調(diào)味的可食性產(chǎn)品，如腌黃瓜
A solution of brine or vinegar, often spiced, for preserving and flavoring food.
腌汁：用于保存或給食物調(diào)味的鹽或醋溶液，常加有香料
A chemical solution, such as an acid, that is used as a bath to remove scale and oxides from the surface of metals before plating or finishing.
淡酸水，稀酸液：在金屬電鍍或精加工之前用來除去金屬表面鐵銹和氧化物的化學溶液，如酸溶液
Informal A disagreeable or troublesome situation; a plight.See Synonyms at predicament
【非正式用語】 困境：不利或麻煩的形勢；進退兩難的境地參見 predicament
v.tr.（及物動詞）
pick.led,pick.ling,pick.les
To preserve or flavor (food) in a solution of brine or vinegar.
腌制：在鹵水或醋溶液中保存或腌制（食物）
To treat (metal) in a chemical bath.
用稀酸液浸洗：在化學電解槽中處理（金屬）

來源：
Middle English pikle [highly-seasoned sauce]
中古英語 pikle [有很多調(diào)味品的醬]
probably from Middle Dutch pekel [pickle, brine]
可能源自 中古荷蘭語 pekel [腌菜，鹽水]

<注釋>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 tradethat we have the wordpickle. Middle Englishpikel, the ancestor of our word,is first recorded around 400with 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 related somewhat in sense to its possible Middle Dutch sourcepekel, a solution, such as spiced brine, for preserving and flavoring food.After coming into Englishthe wordpickle expanded its sense range in several ways. It was applied, as it had been in Middle Dutch, to a pickling solution.Laterpickle 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 phrasein de pekel zitten, .sit in the pickle,. and iemand in de pekel laten zitten, .let someone sit in the pickle..
在中世紀末，穿過北海與低地國家的貿(mào)易對英格蘭來說非常重要，也許就是因為這種貿(mào)易，便有了pickle 這個詞。 中世紀英語中的pikel ， 也就是我們這詞的祖先，大約在400年第一次被記錄，意思是.加有肉或禽肉的多香料的調(diào)味汁或肉汁。.這與現(xiàn)在我們所想到的意思有所不同，但從其可能的中世紀荷蘭語詞源pekle 的意義上講又有些關聯(lián)， 該詞指如加香料的鹵水等用來腌制或保存食物的溶液。進入英語后，pickle 這個詞的詞義在很多方面擴大了其含義。 象在中世紀荷蘭語那樣，它被用來指一種腌制食物的溶液。后來pickle 又用來指如此腌制的東西，如腌黃瓜。 從而這個詞也有了比喻意義，即.麻煩的境地，.這大概是因為受了荷蘭語中有短語坐在鹵水中 和 讓某人坐在鹵水中 的類似用法的影響