Definition
In a difficult situation or a troubling quandary.
Origins
The term refers to being in pickling solution, presumably unpleasant. It was first used in English by William Shakespeare in The Tempest (1611), although the phrase had been used in Dutch earlier.
In Context
- "How cam'ſt thou in this pickle? / Tri. I haue bin in ſuch a pickle ſince I ſaw you laſt, / That I feare me will neuer out of my bones:"
- "Cody Ko, a YouTube star with 5.7 million subscribers, found himself in a pickle in May."
Also Said As
- in a fix
- troubled