PESTLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pestle

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Pestle

noun

Machine consisting of a heavy bar that moves vertically for pounding or crushing ores. Synonym: stamp.

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. Synonyms: muller, pounder.

A club-shaped hand tool for grinding and mixing substances in a mortar.

verb

(past & past part. pestled; pres. part. pestling)

Grind, mash or pulverize in a mortar.

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Etymology of 'Pestle'

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"Pestle" Quotes from Famous Books

... her a grain of rice and bade her grind it in the mortar. Blanche put the rice in the mortar and ground it with the pestle, and before she had been grinding two minutes the mortar was full of rice, enough for both of ...

— Tales of Folk and Fairies • Katharine Pyle

... of excited interest touched the groups in the street. The two soldiers rose and stared hard to their left; M. Perret of the Pharmacie Normale came out at a quick call from his wife, and stood, pestle in hand, as she struggled with a maddening knot in the ...

— The Halo • Bettina von Hutten

... the door behind her, lifted a suitcase on to the bed, and, opening it, took out a small Japanese box. From this he removed a tiny glass pestle and mortar, six little vials, a hypodermic syringe, and a small spirit lamp. Then from his pocket he took a cigarette case and removed two cigarettes which he laid carefully on the dressing table. He was busy for the greater part ...

— The Man Who Knew • Edgar Wallace

... anything so lucky that the strike of the masons should have happened at this identical juncture! Parliament is prorogued. Now, deducting Sir Robert Peel, physician, with his train of apothecaries and pestle-and-mortar apprentices, who, until February next, are to sit cross-legged and try to think, there are at least six hundred and thirty unemployed members of the House of Commons, turned upon the world with nothing, ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, October 16, 1841 • Various

... "You pestle her, pardner, an' I'll fix the scales." McTeague ground the lumps to fine dust in the iron mortar while Cribbens set up the tiny scales and got out the ...

— McTeague • Frank Norris

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