griddle
Americannoun
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a frying pan with a handle and a slightly raised edge, for cooking pancakes, bacon, etc., over direct heat.
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any flat, heated surface, especially on the top of a stove, for cooking food.
a quick breakfast from the luncheonette's griddle.
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Upstate New York Older Use. a circular lid covering an opening on the cooking surface of a wood or coal-burning stove.
verb (used with object)
noun
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Also called: girdle. a thick round iron plate with a half hoop handle over the top, for making scones, etc
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any flat heated surface, esp on the top of a stove, for cooking food
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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griddlesimple
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griddlessimple
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have griddledperfect
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has griddledperfect
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am griddlingprogressive
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are griddlingprogressive
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is griddlingprogressive
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have been griddlingperfect progressive
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has been griddlingperfect progressive
Past
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griddledsimple
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had griddledperfect
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was griddlingprogressive
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were griddlingprogressive
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had been griddlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of griddle
1175–1225; Middle English gridel, gredil < Old French gridil, gredil; see grill 1
Explanation
A griddle is a flat pan or stovetop that's used for cooking things quickly at high temperatures. Let's make pancakes on the griddle for breakfast. Yum! In a home kitchen, a griddle can be either a special metal pan. part of your stove, or a small appliance that you plug in; a restaurant griddle has a much larger surface. No matter what its size, the flat surface of a griddle gets hot fast, so you can easily whip up some scrambled eggs, hash browns, or bacon. Griddle originally meant "shallow frying pan," and it shares a root with grill.
Vocabulary lists containing griddle
A Toast to Bread
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The List of Things That Will Not Change
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Twenty-Four Seconds from Now
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A representative of Chipotle said that the chain’s chicken “is grilled fresh throughout the day on the plancha,” a flat cooking surface similar to a griddle.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 26, 2026
Just add water and get it on the griddle.
From Salon • Apr. 18, 2025
Although the queen does not provide the instruction, the pancakes are then cooked on a hot griddle.
From BBC • Feb. 28, 2025
Making this one-pan dish sure beats standing over the stove, cooking slice after slice of French toast or ladling pancake batter onto the griddle.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 25, 2023
By the following morning the surface of the chef, as it’s called, was bubbling like pancake batter on a hot griddle.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
