in a pickle
Origin
From Shakespeare's The Tempest.
ALONSO And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em?
How camest thou in this pickle?
TRINCULO I have been in such a pickle since I
saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of
my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.
(from a British phrase finding site)
Ian Clarke
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