Pickle.
A rod in pickle. One ready to chastise with at any moment. Piekled means preserved for use. (Danish, pekel.)
Iʹm in a pretty pickle. In a sorry plight, or state of disorder.
“How camʹst thou in this pickle?”
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.