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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
pestle
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Brayer a maker or seller of pestles.
▪ It has been suggested that such small cups and a pebble were an ancient form of mortar and pestle for grinding what?
▪ Some hours later, out she went again, flying in her mortar and rowing it with the pestle.
▪ The handle is squared and flattened at the end which could mean that it was used as a pestle for grinding.
▪ To keep the sound of pounding rice with a pestle to a minimum, Grandmother put a quilt under the mortar.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
pestle

pestle \pes"tle\ (p[e^]s"t'l or p[e^]s"'l; 277), n. [OE. pestel, OF. pestel, LL. pestellum, L. pistillum, pistillus, a pounder, pestle, fr. pisere, pinsere, to pound, crush, akin to Gr. ?, Skr. pish. Cf. Pistil.]

  1. An implement for pounding and breaking or braying substances in a mortar; as, to grind with a mortar and pestle.

  2. A constable's or bailiff's staff; -- so called from its shape. [Obs.]
    --Chapman.

  3. The leg and leg bone of an animal, especially of a pig; as, a pestle of pork.

pestle

pestle \pes"tle\, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Pestled; p. pr. & vb. n. Pestling.] To pound, pulverize, bray, or mix with a pestle, or as with a pestle; to use a pestle.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
pestle

mid-14c. (as a surname late 13c.), from Old French pestel, from Latin pistillum "pounder, pestle," related to pinsere "to pound," from PIE *pis-to-, suffixed form of root *peis- "to crush" (cognates: Sanskrit pinasti "pounds, crushes," pistah "anything ground, meal," Greek ptissein "to winnow," Old Church Slavonic pišo, pichati "to push, thrust, strike," pišenica "wheat," Russian pseno "millet").

Wiktionary
pestle

n. 1 A club-shaped, round-headed stick used in a mortar to pound, crush, rub or grind things. 2 (context archaic English) A constable's or bailiff's staff; so called from its shape. 3 The leg and leg bone of an animal, especially of a pig. vb. To pound, crush, rub or grind (things), as in a mortar with a pestle.

WordNet
pestle
  1. n. machine consisting of a heavy bar that moves vertically for pounding or crushing ores [syn: stamp]

  2. 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 [syn: muller, pounder]

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

  4. v. grind or pulverize in a pestle

Usage examples of "pestle".

But as he ran out, he still surprised both Fenya and old Matryona by a most unexpected act: on the table stood a brass mortar with a pestle in it, a small brass pestle, only seven inches long.

Mitya suddenly, without stopping, snatched the pestle from the mortar with his other hand, shoved it into his side pocket, and made off with it.

Mitya was beside himself, and suddenly he snatched the brass pestle from his pocket.

The pestle fell two paces away from Grigory, not in the grass, however, but on a footpath, in a most conspicuous place.

They began searching near the fence with a lantern and found the brass pestle, thrown right on the garden path for all to see.

I grabbed the pestle in order to run and kill my father, Fyodor Pavlovich .

When he finally came to the moment when, seeing his father leaning out of the window, hatred boiled up in him and he snatched the pestle from his pocket, he suddenly stopped as if on purpose.

As soon as Mitya described how, sitting astride the fence, he had hit Grigory, who was clutching his left leg, on the head with the pestle, and then jumped down at once to the stricken man, the prosecutor stopped him and asked him to describe in greater detail how he was sitting on the fence.

But observe: beside himself as he may have been, he did take the brass pestle with him.

The defendant, at night, in the garden, climbs the fence as he is fleeing, and strikes down with a brass pestle the servant who has seized him by the leg.

No, if we really are so calculating and hard-hearted, would it not be better, having jumped down, simply to whack the fallen servant on the head again and again with the same pestle, so as to kill him finally, and, having eradicated the witness, to put all worry out of our mind?

I took from the two women, both of whom can later recognize the pestle as theirs and testify that I took it from their house.

But we did it precisely because we felt bitter at having killed a man, an old servant, and therefore in vexation, with a curse, we threw the pestle away as a murderous weapon, it could not be otherwise, or why throw it with such force?

A most ordinary thought comes to my mind here: what if this pestle had not been lying in plain sight, had not been on the shelf from which the defendant snatched it, but had been put away in a cupboard?

How, then, can I possibly arrive at the conclusion that the pestle is a proof of arming and premeditating?