Definition of "pestle"

pestle

/ˈpɛsəl/

noun
plural pestles
1. A club-shaped, round-headed stick used in a mortar to pound, crush, rub or grind things.
  Quotations
  She then sat down by the fire, and carefully separated the stone from the pulp, which she burnt; and her next task was to extract the kernel, which she did by means of a heavy pestle and the hearth. The kernels were next crushed together, and placed to simmer over the furnace.
  1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Laboratory”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 327
2. (archaic) A constable's or bailiff's staff; so called from its shape.
  Quotations
  […] whether the chopping-knife or their pestles were the better weapons
  1611, George Chapman, May-Day
3. The leg and leg bone of an animal, especially of a pig.
verb
third-person singular simple present pestles, present participle pestling, simple past and past participle pestled
1. (transitive) To pound, crush, rub or grind, as in a mortar with a pestle.
  Quotations
  ‘Next time, boy, that you use that mortar for garlic, I will personally knock out your brain, place it in the said mortar, pestle it to a fine paste and give it to Dick Purser for feeding the dogs.’
  2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 47