Pickle has several meanings:

1. A cucumber (or other vegetable) preserved in vinegar or salt water. When cucumbers soak in a vinegar mixture with spices, they become crunchy, tangy pickles. You might eat a pickle with your sandwich or find one on a hamburger. People have been pickling vegetables for thousands of years as a way to preserve food through winter. In fact, you can pickle almost any vegetable: peppers, onions, carrots, even watermelon rinds.
2. A difficult or messy situation. When you find yourself in a pickle, you're stuck in a problem that's hard to solve. If you promised to help two different friends at the same time, you're in a pickle. If your baseball rolls under a neighbor's fence and their dog won't let you near it, that's quite a pickle too.

As a verb, to pickle means to preserve food in vinegar or salty water.

Some families pass down pickle recipes through generations, each with its own special blend of spices and vinegar.