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Shakespeare does not use those exact words, but here are some similar uses.

Thou shalt be whipp'd with wire, and stew'd in brine,

Smarting in lingering pickle. (Antony and Cleopatra, II, 5)

How camest thou in this pickle? (The Tempest, V, 1)

I have been in such a pickle since I

saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of

my bones (The Tempest, V, 1)

In the quotation from Antony and Cleopatra, the "pickle" is the same as "brine", salty water which aids preservation of vegetables etc. In the quotations from The Tempest, the idea is that Trinculo is "pickled", which is to say, drunk. The same implication is given in Twelfth Night, when Sir Toby says "A plague o' these pickled herring." The idea is that it is Sir Toby and not the herring that is pickled.

Shakespeare does not use the phrase in the sense of being in trouble or a tricky situation.

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12y ago

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