pestle
pestle Lexical Profile
pestle Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A heavy, club-shaped hand tool with a rounded end, used for crushing, mashing, and grinding substances such as spices, herbs, or chemicals in a mortar.
"She used a heavy granite pestle to crush the toasted cumin seeds and garlic into a fragrant paste."
Any of various mechanical appliances or heavy stamps used for pounding, pulverizing, or stamping materials in industrial mills or workshops.
"In the traditional paper mill, water-powered wooden pestles beat the linen rags into a fine pulp."
• verb
To crush, pound, or grind a substance into a powder or paste using, or as if using, a pestle.
"The apothecary carefully pestled the dried roots and minerals before mixing them into an ointment."
Word Nuance & Usage
The 't' in 'pestle' is traditionally silent (/ˈpɛsəl/), though a spelling pronunciation with an audible 't' (/ˈpɛstəl/) is also heard. Do not confuse the pestle (the club-shaped grinding tool) with the mortar (the bowl in which substances are ground).
• Rhymes for pestle
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in Middle English from Old French pestel, which derives from Latin pistillum ('pounder, pestle'), a diminutive related to pinsere ('to pound, crush, or stamp'). It shares this Latin root with 'pistil', the central seed-bearing organ of a flower, so named for its resemblance to a miniature pestle.