▪ I. pestle, n.
(ˈpɛs(ə)l, ˈpɛst(ə)l)
Forms: 4–7 pestel, 5 -tylle, 5–6 -telle, 5–7 -tell, -til (8–9 dial.), 6–7 -till, 7 -sel(l, -teell, 8 pistil, 5– pestle.
[ME. a. OF. pestel, -eil = It. pestello:—L. pistillum, -us (med.L. also pestillum) pounder, pestle, dim. of *pistrum, f. pinsĕre, pist-um to pound, bray, crush.]
1. An instrument (usually club-shaped) for bruising or pounding substances in a mortar. pestle and mortar, esp. those used by the apothecary in triturating and compounding drugs; hence taken as the symbol of the profession.
Used by Wyclif (1 Chron. xxi. 23) also to render L. tribula threshing-instrument.
| [1272 in Rogers Agric. & Prices II. 566/2 Mortar cum pestelello.] 1382 Wyclif Exod. xvi. 14 It [the manna] aperid in wildernes lassid, and as with a pestel pownyd, into the lyknes of an hoore frost vpon the erthe. 1388 ― Prov. xxvii. 22 Thouȝ thou beetist a fool in a morter, as with a pestel smytynge aboue dried barli: his foli schal not be don awei fro him. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 347 Make clene þe morter; & þan leie þeron camphore..þan do þerto oile, & grinde hem wel togidere wiþ þe pestel. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 395/1 Pestel, of stampynge, pila, pistillus. 1584 Cogan Haven Health (1636) 107 Beat them small in a woodden mortar, or marble, with a pestill of wood. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 52 ¶3 The renowned British Hippocrates of the Pestle and Mortar. 1850 W. Irving Goldsmith vi. 85 His medical science..could not gain him the management of a pestle and mortar. |
| fig. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet D, Then haue I a pestle so to stampe his pistles, that Ile beate all his wit to powder. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) I. 282 Beat up by poetic pestle. 1849 D. G. Mitchell Battle Summer (1852) 232 He will pound their pamphlets with his pestle of a pen. |
2. Applied to various mechanical appliances for pounding, stamping, pressing, etc.; e.g.
a. The vertically moving bar in a stamping-mill; a stamp. b. The beater or pounder in a fulling-mill. c. The stamper in an oil-mill. † d. The piston of a pump (obs.).
| 1604 E. G[rimstone] D' Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xiii. 247 The difference of these engins is, that some goe with sixe pestels, some with twelve, and others with foureteene. 1659 J. Leak Waterwks. 3 The Pestle A may be put therein, which shall be like to those which are used for Pumps and Forcers of water; and..well invironed with leather. 1678 Evelyn Diary 24 Aug., They stamp them [rags] in troughs to a papp with pestles or hammers like the powder-mills. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Fulling, The principal parts of the Fulling-mill are..the pestles, or stampers. The pestles and troughs are of wood. 1772 Ann. Reg. 213 Discontinuing the use of pestles in making gunpowder at his mills. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 234 Nitrate of potash, mixed with..charcoal and..sulphur, forms gunpowder. These three substances are pounded by means of pestles or a grinding⁓stone. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 450 (Oil mill) When the workman wants to stop a pestle, he pulls at the rope 18, during the rise of the pestle. When this is at its greatest height, the detent is horizontal, and prevents the pestle from falling, by means of a pin projecting from the side of the pestle, which rests upon the detent. |
3. The leg of certain animals, used for food, esp. the ham or haunch of the pig (occasionally, the foreleg); also, the human leg. Now dial.
(Cf. Ger. keule a club, pestle, leg of pork, mutton, etc.)
| 1326 Wardr. Acc. Edw. II 31/17 (MS.) Un pestel de pork, 3½d. ? c 1390 Form of Cury in Warner Antiq. Culin. 13 The fyletes buþ two, that buþ take oute of the pestels. 14.. Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 437 Take the pestelles of the chekyns and couche hom in dysshes. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 395/1 Pestelle, of flesche, pestellus. a 1529 Skelton E. Rummyng 423 Her legges..were sturdy and stubbed Myghty pestels and clubbed. 1563 B. Googe Eglogs etc. Cupido (Arb.) 123 A Belye byg..and Pestels two, lyke Postes. 1568 Withals Dict. 48 b/2 A pestel of bacon, perna suilla. 1611 Cotgr., Faucille,..the bought..or pestle of the thigh [of a horse]. 1777 Hoole Comenius' Vis. World (ed. 12) 71 He dresseth a swine with..scalding water, and maketh gamons, pistils, and flitches. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pestil,..also the shank end of a ham or pork. 1886 Elworthy W. Som. Word-bk. s.v., ‘Pestle o' pork.’ So called, when cooked fresh, instead of being salted for ham o' pork. |
† b. Phr. the pestle of a lark: fig., a trifle, something very small. So a pestle of a portigue, humorously used for a piece of gold. Obs.
| 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. iv. iv. 29 Yet can I set my Gallio's dieting, A pestle of a larke or plouers wing. 1622 Fletcher Sea Voy. i. iv, Fran. Oh I am hungry... Tib. Here's a pestle of a Portigue, Sir: Tis excellent meat with soure sauce: And here's two chaines, suppose 'em sausages. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Rutland. ii. (1662) 346 Rutlandshire is..called by Mr. Cambden Angliæ Provinciola minima. Indeed it is but the Pestel of a Lark, which is better than a quarter of some bigger bird, having the most cleanly profit in it. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 326 ¶5 Sometimes..a Wheat Ear or the Pestle of a Lark were chearfully purchased. |
† 4. A constable's truncheon or club. Obs. rare.
| 1611 Chapman May-Day iv. i, To trie whether this chopping knife or their pestels were the better weapons. |
† 5. Bot. Early form of pistil, q.v.
6. attrib. and Comb.: pestle-frame, the structure in a pestle-mill which supports the pestles and the machinery which operates them; † pestle-head, a blockhead; pestle-mill, a stamping-mill, a powder-mill; pestle-pie dial. (see quot.).
| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 450 Profile of the *pestle-frame. |
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Majadero, a pestill, a dolt, a *pestill head, a beetle head. |
| 1773 Act 13 Geo. III, c. 13 An Act to enable certain persons..to continue to work a *Pestle Mill,..in making Battle Gunpowder, at Old Forge Farm, in the parish of Tonbridge. |
| 1777 Horæ Subsecivæ 323 (E.D.D.) A ‘*pestle pye’, a large standing pye, which contains a whole gammon, and sometimes a neat's tongue also, together with a couple of fowls, and if a turkey not the worse. A noted dish at country fairs and wakes, and some⁓times a Xtmas treat. |
▪ II. ˈpestle, v.
[a. OF. pesteler to bray, pound, f. pestel: see prec.]
1. trans. To beat, pound, or triturate, with or as with a pestle. Also fig.
| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iii. ii. 51 So were they..cast in to the fire where they were with grete cheynes pesteled and beten. 1659 Howell Lexicon, Fr. Prov. 25 A morter, wherein Garlicke hath been pestelled in, cannot be so washed, but that it will still retain some smell thereof. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. i. xi, To pestle a poison'd poison. 1884 Sala Journ. due South i. xiv. (1887) 186 The black⁓eyebrowed assistant..[was] pestling something in a huge mortar. 1891 Chamb. Jrnl. 20 June 385/2 She has been put into a mortar and is being pestled into shape. |
2. intr. To use or work with a pestle.
| 1866 Howells Venet. Life 336 His apprentice pestles away at their prescriptions. 1871 ― Wedd. Journ. 62 The apothecary..gaily pestled away at a prescription. |
Hence ˈpestling ppl. a.
| 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iii iii, It will be such a pest'ling deuice,..It will pound all your enemies practises to poulder. |