Meanings
plural picklebacks
- A shot of whiskey with a shot of pickle brine as the chaser.
Reggie poured me a pickleback, which he described as the house specialty: a shot of Old Crow bourbon and an accompanying shot of brine from a jar of McClure’s spicy dills.
2010, Toby Cecchini, “Got Your Pickleback”, The New York Times Style Magazine, 2010-03-16 - The shot of pickle brine itself as a chaser.
There are drink deals to match, like the Recession Special, which nets you a PBR tall boy, a shot of whiskey. and a shot of spicy pickleback for a modest $6.
2010, New York, Volume 43, Issues ? (14-21), p. ??
Origin
From pickle + back (“mild drink, chaser”). Coined 2006 by Reggie Cunningham of The Bushwick Country Club bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pickleback. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pickleback
“pickleback.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pickleback. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pickleback,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pickleback.
Source: pickleback on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.