pestle
/ˈpɛsəl/
pestle noun: a club-shaped, round-headed stick used in a mortar to pound, crush, rub or grind things.
Noun
pestle (plural pestles)
- A club-shaped, round-headed stick used in a mortar to pound, crush, rub or grind things.
- She then sat down by the fire, and carefully separated the stone from the pulp, which she burnt; and her next task was to extract the kernel, which she did by means of a heavy pestle and the hearth. The kernels were next crushed together, and placed to simmer over the furnace.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Laboratory”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 327
- A constable's or bailiff's staff; so called from its shape.
- I long to meet a Sergeant in this humor, I vvould […] trie vvhether the chopping knife or their peſtles vvere the better vveapons.1611, George Chapman, May-Day. A Witty Comedie, […], London: […] [William Stansby] for Iohn Brown, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 56
- The leg and leg bone of an animal, especially of a pig.
- a pestle of pork
Verb
pestle (third-person singular simple present pestles, present participle pestling, simple past and past participle pestled)
- To pound, crush, rub or grind, as in a mortar with a pestle.
- ‘Next time, boy, that you use that mortar for garlic, I will personally knock out your brain, place it in the said mortar, pestle it to a fine paste and give it to Dick Purser for feeding the dogs.’2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 47
pestle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
pestle in Hindi
- pestle
- मूसल mūsal
pestle in Tamil
- instrument used with a mortar to grind things
- உலக்கை ulakkai, குழவி kuḻavi
pestle in Marathi
- instrument used with a mortar to grind things
- बत्ता battā
pestle in Urdu
- pestle
- دستہ dasta
More languagesFewer languages
- pestle in Bengali
- মুষল muśol
- pestle in Telugu
- ముసలము musalamu
- pestle in Malayalam
- ഉലക്ക, കുഴവിക്കല്ല്, അമ്മിപ്പിള്ള
- pestle in Kannada
- ಒನಕೆ onake
- pestle in Punjabi
- ਮੋਗਲਾ moglā, ਡੰਡਾ ḍaṇḍā
- pestle in Gujarati
- દસ્તો dasto
- pestle in Odia
- ମୁସଳ musaḷa
- pestle in Sanskrit
- मुसल músala
- pestle in Tagalog
- pambayo, halo, pandikdik, panligis
- pestle in Arabic
- مِدَقَّة midaqqa, يَد yad, دَسْتَج dastaj
- pestle in Malay
- perosak, alu, pengentak
- pestle in Indonesian
- alu, antan
- pestle in Persian
- یانه yāne, دسته هاون daste hāvan, یاور yāvar
- pestle in Thai
- สาก sàak
- pestle in Vietnamese
- chày
- pestle in Myanmar
- ကျည်ပွေ့ kyanypwe.
Examples of pestle in a sentence
- His favorite part of making preserves with his mother was when he got to smush the raw fruit with the pestle.
- Every family had a wooden mortar and stone pestle and the men worked long hours in preparing this.
- All specimens were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen, powderized using a mortar and pestle, and stored at -80°C until time for protein or RNA isolation.
Forms of pestle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pestles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pestles |
| present participle | pestling |
| past participle | pestled |
| past | pestled |
Origin of pestle
From Middle English pestel, pestell, from Old French pestel, from Latin pistillum, from pīnsō (“pound, beat”). Doublet of pistil and pistillum.
Words formed from pestle
Phrases with pestle
Words that rhyme with pestle
Questions about pestle
- What does pestle mean?
- Pestle means a club-shaped, round-headed stick used in a mortar to pound, crush, rub or grind things.
- What is pestle in Hindi?
- Pestle in Hindi is मूसल (mūsal). See Pestle meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is pestle?
- Pestle can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce pestle?
- Pestle is pronounced /ˈpɛsəl/.
- What is the plural of pestle?
- The plural of pestle is pestles.
Words near pestle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pestle (page history and authors); मूसल (Hindi) (page history and authors); دستہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); মুষল (Bengali) (page history and authors); ముసలము (Telugu) (page history and authors); pestle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಒನಕೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਡੰਡਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ମୁସଳ (Odia) (page history and authors); मुसल (Sanskrit) (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-ca-pestle.oga.
Cite this entry: “pestle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pestle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.