In a pickle
Meaning
To be in a difficult, troublesome, or awkward situation from which it is hard to escape.
Origin
Imagine being thoroughly soaked, not in water, but in a pungent, vinegary brine—that's the vivid imagery behind 'in a pickle.' The phrase gained its enduring power through the masterful quill of William Shakespeare. In his 1611 play, The Tempest, the jester Trinculo finds himself shipwrecked and utterly bedraggled. When asked by Alonso, 'How cam'st thou in this pickle?', Trinculo replies that he's been 'in such a pickle' since they last met, implying a state of both drunkenness and being thoroughly mired in mud and misfortune. Shakespeare brilliantly captured the sensation of being completely immersed in an unpleasant situation, forever steeping the phrase in our language as the perfect description for any truly sticky predicament.
Examples
- After I accidentally deleted the entire presentation right before the meeting, I found myself in a real pickle.
- He was in a pickle when his car ran out of gas miles from the nearest town with no cell signal.