Pestled

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈpɛsəld/

Definitions

1. To mash or grind food items into a paste or powder with a heavy tool designed for that purpose
2. The act of pulverizing ingredients through the use of a blunt object typically employed in a grinding bowl
3. Crushed or ground finely by repeated pounding using a pestle

Etymology: "Pestled" is simply the past tense and past participle of "pestle," so the real story sits with the noun it comes from. That noun traces back to Latin "pistillum," a pounding tool, which was built from "pīnsō," meaning "pound" or "beat." The Latin word passed into Old French as "pestel," and Middle English took it up as "pestel" or "pestell," the hand-held club used to crush things in a mortar. The same Latin source also produced "pistil," the part of a flower, which is a doublet of "pestle." Both words descend from the same pounding tool, and the link is visible in the flower: the pistil's shape resembles the pestle that pounds in a mortar. The two English words went separate ways, one into kitchens and one into botany.

Synonyms: crushed, ground, milled, pounded, mashed

Antonyms: whole, intact, unprocessed, uncut, unbroken