Pickling meaning : To preserve food (or sometimes other things) in a salt, sugar or vinegar solution. To remove high-temperature scale and oxidation from metal with heated (often sulphuric) industrial acid. (in the Python programming language) To serialize. To pour brine over a person after flogging them, as a method of punishment. To eat sparingly. To pilfer. An instance of processing something in brine or other solution. A process by which the oxide scale on steel (especially stainless steels) is chemically removed (by strong acids).