Pestle

English

File:Black peppercorns with mortar and pestle.jpg

A mortar and pestle with black peppercorns.

Noun

Pestle (plural Pestles)

1. A club-shaped, round-headed stick used in a mortar to pound, crush, rub or grind things.

Coordinate terms

• muddler

Verb

Pestle (third-person singular simple present pestles, present participle pestling, simple past and past participle pestled)

1. To pound, crush, rub or grind (things), as in a mortar with a pestle.

Related terms

• pesto
• pistil

Thesaurus

abrade, atomize, beat, bray, brecciate, cheese grater, comminute, comminutor, contriturate, crumb, crumble, crush, crusher, disintegrate, flour, fragment, grain, granulate, granulator, granulize, grate, grater, grind, grind to powder, grinder, kominuter, levigate, levigator, mash, masher, mill, millstone, mortar and pestle, nutmeg grater, pound, powder, pulverize, pulverizer, quern, quernstone, reduce to powder, rock crusher, roller, scrunch, shard, shred, shredder, smash, squash, steamroller, triturate, triturator

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpɛsəl/
• Rhymes: -ɛsəl

Translations

Noun

instrument used with a mortar to grind things

Finnish: petkel (fi) French: pilon (fr) German: Stößel (de) m. Greek: γουδοχέρι (el) (goudochéri) n. Japanese: 擂粉木 (ja) (すりこぎ, surikogi)

Korean: 방앗공이 (ko) (bangAt-gongI), 절굿공이 (ko) (jeolgut-gongI), 막자 (ko) (makja) (small-sized) Macedonian: толчник (mk) (tólčnik) m. Russian: пест (ru) (pest) m., пестик (ru) (péstik) m. Spanish: pilón (es) m., pistilo (es) m.