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 recent Chipotle ad for the chain’s adobo chicken advertises the meat as grilled—even as an actor flips the thighs on what appears to be a flat-top griddle.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 26, 2026
Although the queen does not provide the instruction, the pancakes are then cooked on a hot griddle.
From BBC • Feb. 28, 2025
The casual restaurant is a window-fronted galley kitchen where you can see the dough for pide and gozleme being rolled thin before being placed on the flat top griddle, where they’re cooked to order.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 24, 2024
By noon, she and her mom load their white van with soup-filled pots, orange Home Depot buckets and a cast-iron griddle to heat up tortillas.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 23, 2023
The cook was behind the counter, scraping his griddle with the edge of a spatula.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
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.
