In a pickle
"In a difficult, awkward, or messy situation."
One of the older idioms here, and one of the best sourced. Shakespeare used it directly in The Tempest (1610), when King Alonso asks the drunken jester Trinculo, "How camest thou in this pickle?" The image comes from the Dutch phrase "in de pekel zitten," literally "to sit in the pickling brine," a sharp, vinegary liquid used for preserving food, extended metaphorically to describe being stuck in a sour, unpleasant situation.
Sources: William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1610), Act V Scene I; Dutch idiom 'in de pekel zitten' cited by the Oxford English Dictionary.
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