1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, Disdossa, alla disdossa, loosely on ones backe, a pick-a-pack.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, i. ii. 72. Mounted a pick-back.
1665. Homer-a-la-mode [Nares]. Some two or three meet in a hole Together, their state to condole, Yet none of them knowes what they lack Unlesse they'd be brought home pick-pack.
1677. Wrangling Lovers [Nares]. He have her to him, tho it be on pickpack.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie [Works (1725), 129]. And through the Fire a-pick a-pack, Bore the old Sinner on his Back.
d. 1704. L'Estrange [Century}. In a hurry she whips up her darling under her arms, and carries the other a pickapack upon her shoulders.
Pick-and-dab, subs, phr. (Scots').—A
meal of potatoes and salt;
potatoes-and-point (q.v.).
Pickers. See Pick, verb. 2.
Picker-up, subs. phr. (Stock Exchange).—A
dealer buying on
quotations trickily obtained from
a member trapped into giving a
wrong price.
Pickle, subs. (colloquial).—1. A
difficult or disagreeable position;
a plight. Hence, a case of
pickles = a bad breakdown; a
serious quandary.
1609. Shakspeare, Tempest, v. i. How camest thou in this pickle?
1614. Time's Whistle [E.E.T.S.], 60. But they proceed till one drops downe dead drunke,. . . And all the rest, in a sweet pickle brought,. . . Lie downe beside him.
1633. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 5. I am now in a fine pickle.
1694. Crowne, Married Beau, iv. i. Oh! pox! in what a pickle am I!
1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iv. 6. Sir J. [covered with dirt and blood]. What the plague does the woman squall for? Did you never see a man in a pickle before?
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas, iv. vi. Gentlemen, I know this epicure; it is . . . the . . . rector of our university; notwithstanding the pickle you see him in now, he is a great man . . . a little addicted to lawsuits, a bottle, and a wench.
2. (colloquial).—A wag: specifically, a troublesome child: cf. Peregrine Pickle (1751), Title. Hence pickled = roguish; waggish.—B. E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785).
1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, v. 4. His poor boy Jack was the most comical bastard . . . a pickled dog; I shall never forget him.
1883. Harper's Mag., lxxvi. 140. Tummas was a pickle—a perfect 'andful.
3. (medical students').—In pl. = specimens for dissection direct from the subject.
Verb, (common).—To humbug; to gammon (q.v.).
In pickle, adv. phr. (old).—Poxed or clapt.—B. E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785).
A rod in pickle (or piss), subs. phr. (colloquial).—A flogging or scolding in reserve; 'a revenge in lavender.'—B. E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785). [As in the old school rhyme:—'Rod in pickle, Rump to tickle.' In the days of authority rods were pickled in urine or in brine, which elements, it was held, imparted toughness.]
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie [Works (1725), 126]. Therefore I think it not amiss for's To launch, for there are Rods in Piss for's.
Pickle-herring (or pickled-herring),
subs. phr. (old).—A
buffoon: see Buffle.—Grose
(1785).
1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, i. 5. A plague o' these pickle-herring! How now, sot.
