Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A club-shaped, handheld tool for grinding or mashing substances in a mortar.
- noun A large bar moved vertically to stamp or pound, as in a press or mill.
- intransitive verb To pound, grind, or mash with or as if with a pestle.
- intransitive verb To use a pestle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To break or pound with a pestle; pulverize, grind, or rub with a pestle, as in a mortar.
- To use a pestle; pound.
- noun An instrument for pounding and breaking a substance in a mortar.
- noun In machinery:
- noun The vertically moving bar of a stamp-mill.
- noun One of the pounders or mallets used in a fulling-mill.
- noun The leg of certain animals, especially of the pig.
- noun A short staff carried by a constable or bailiff. Compare
mace .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An implement for pounding and breaking or braying substances in a mortar.
- noun obsolete A constable's or bailiff's staff; -- so called from its shape.
- noun The leg and leg bone of an animal, especially of a pig.
- verb To pound, pulverize, bray, or mix with a pestle, or as with a pestle; to use a pestle.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
club -shaped , round-headed stick used in amortar topound ,crush ,rub orgrind things. - verb To
pound ,crush ,rub orgrind (things), as in a mortar with a pestle.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun machine consisting of a heavy bar that moves vertically for pounding or crushing ores
- verb grind, mash or pulverize in a mortar
- noun a club-shaped hand tool for grinding and mixing substances in a mortar
- noun 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
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Puree the garlic and salt together (a mortar and pestle is the best tool for this job, but it can also be done in a blender).
Gardens and Kittens with Recipe for Eggplant Kebab on Rosemary Skewers (Κεμπάμπ με Μελιτζάνες και Δενδρολίβανο) Laurie Constantino 2008
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Puree the garlic and salt together (a mortar and pestle is the best tool for this job, but it can also be done in a blender).
Archive 2008-09-01 Laurie Constantino 2008
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The pestle, which is known as the tejolote, has also been carved out of the same volcanic rock.
How to season a molcajete | Homesick Texan Homesick Texan 2009
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The pestle, which is known as the tejolote, has also been carved out of the same volcanic rock.
Archive 2009-07-01 Homesick Texan 2009
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As soon as I get a mortar and a pestle, that is the first chutney I am gonna make :.
Save the coconut! 2006
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The pestle is a pole, preferably and usually of heavy hardwood, about
The Manóbos of Mindanáo Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir John M. Garvan
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By treading with all his force on the end of the handle, the naked kometsuki elevates the pestle, which is then allowed to fall back by its own weight into the rice-tub.
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan First Series Lafcadio Hearn 1877
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Each time I go to Paris, I vow to find a mortar and pestle, which is the only item missing from my list.
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A grain of the substance, if it is solid, a drop if it is liquid, is to be added to about a third part of one hundred grains of sugar of milk in an unglazed porcelain capsule which has had the polish removed from the lower part of its cavity by rubbing it with wet sand; they are to be mingled for an instant with a bone or horn spatula, and then rubbed together for six minutes; then the mass is to be scraped together from the mortar and pestle, which is to take four minutes; then to be again rubbed for six minutes.
Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851
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A grain of the substance, if it is solid, a drop if it is liquid, is to be added to about a third part of one hundred grains of sugar of milk in an unglazed porcelain capsule which has had the polish removed from the lower part of its cavity by rubbing it with wet sand; they are to be mingled for an instant with a bone or horn spatula, and then rubbed together for six minutes; then the mass is to be scraped together from the mortar and pestle, which is to take four minutes; then to be again rubbed for six minutes.
Medical Essays, 1842-1882 Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851
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