Word.ws English Dictionary

gherkin

Syllables: gher·kinUK/ˈɡɜːkɪn/US/ˈɡɝkɪn/

gherkin noun: a small cucumber, often pickled whole. Also the alternative letter-case form of Gherkin.

gherkin: a small cucumber, often pickled whole
Image: Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

gherkin (plural gherkins)

  1. A small cucumber, often pickled whole.
  2. (Ireland, UK) Pickled cucumber regardless of size; a pickle
  3. (slang) The penis.
    • “Even my gherkin is sorry, and it didn't talk shit about anybody," persists Adrian. The edge of Titus's mouth quivers in laughter.2008, E. Lockhart, Fly on the Wall
    • “Yes, daddy,” I moaned, lying big-time as his finger played in my sudsy pussy. “Say please,” he ordered, taking my hand to circle around his gherkin.2010, Niobia Bryant, Live and Learn

Proper noun capitalized: Gherkin

the Gherkin

  1. (UK, informal) The building at 30 St Mary Axe, a distinctively-shaped skyscraper in London, England

Also used as

gherkin is also the alternative letter-case form of Gherkin.

Forms of gherkin

pluralgherkins
alternative form (obsolete)gerkin

Origin of gherkin

From a form of Dutch gurk, an archaic variant of augurk (“small pickled cucumber”), from Low German, from Middle Low German agurke, augurke, probably via Slavic (compare Polish ogórek), from Byzantine Greek ἀγγούριον (angoúrion, “cucumber”). The underlying Dutch form may be a diminutive (gurkijn) or perhaps more probably the plural (gurken), which was then associated with the English suffix -kin (itself incidentally from Dutch or Low German). Compare German Gurke.

After the shape of the building, which is like that of a gherkin.

Words formed from gherkin

Phrases with gherkin

Words that rhyme with gherkin

Questions about gherkin

What does gherkin mean?
Gherkin means a small cucumber, often pickled whole.
What part of speech is gherkin?
Gherkin can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce gherkin?
Gherkin is pronounced /ˈɡɝkɪn/ (US).
What is the plural of gherkin?
The plural of gherkin is gherkins.

Words near gherkin in the dictionary

  1. gheraos
  2. Ghercești
  3. Ghere
  4. Gherghești
  5. Gherghița
  6. gherkin
  7. gherkins
  8. Gherla
  9. Gherman
  10. ghersh
  11. Gherăești

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gherkin (page history and authors); Gherkin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-gherkin.ogg.

Cite this entry: “gherkin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gherkin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.