Word.ws English Dictionary

pestles

/ˈpɛsəlz/

pestles is the plural of pestle.

pestles is the third-person singular simple present indicative of pestle.

Meaning of pestle

Noun

pestle (plural pestles)

  1. 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
  2. (archaic) 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
  3. The leg and leg bone of an animal, especially of a pig.
    • a pestle of pork

See all 4 meanings of pestle

Phrases with pestles

Words that rhyme with pestles

Questions about pestles

What is pestles the plural of?
Pestles is the plural of pestle.
How do you pronounce pestles?
Pestles is pronounced /ˈpɛsəlz/.

Words near pestles in the dictionary

  1. Pestișu Mic
  2. pestle
  3. pestle and mortar
  4. pestled
  5. pestlelike
  6. pestles
  7. pestles and mortars
  8. pestlike
  9. pestling
  10. Pestminster
  11. pesto

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pestles (page history and authors); pestle (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.

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