Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A club-shaped, handheld tool for grinding or mashing substances in a mortar.
  • noun A large bar moved vertically to stamp or pound, as in a press or mill.
  • intransitive verb To pound, grind, or mash with or as if with a pestle.
  • intransitive verb To use a pestle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To break or pound with a pestle; pulverize, grind, or rub with a pestle, as in a mortar.
  • To use a pestle; pound.
  • noun An instrument for pounding and breaking a substance in a mortar.
  • noun In machinery:
  • noun The vertically moving bar of a stamp-mill.
  • noun One of the pounders or mallets used in a fulling-mill.
  • noun The leg of certain animals, especially of the pig.
  • noun A short staff carried by a constable or bailiff. Compare mace.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An implement for pounding and breaking or braying substances in a mortar.
  • noun obsolete A constable's or bailiff's staff; -- so called from its shape.
  • noun The leg and leg bone of an animal, especially of a pig.
  • verb To pound, pulverize, bray, or mix with a pestle, or as with a pestle; to use a pestle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A club-shaped, round-headed stick used in a mortar to pound, crush, rub or grind things.
  • verb To pound, crush, rub or grind (things), as in a mortar with a pestle.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun machine consisting of a heavy bar that moves vertically for pounding or crushing ores
  • verb grind, mash or pulverize in a mortar
  • noun a club-shaped hand tool for grinding and mixing substances in a mortar
  • noun a heavy tool of stone or iron (usually with a flat base and a handle) that is used to grind and mix material (as grain or drugs or pigments) against a slab of stone

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pestel, from Old French, from Latin pistillum.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Via Old French pestel, from Latin pistillum, from pīnsō ("pound, beat"). Cognate to pesto.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pestle.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.