Sauce
Pronunciation
- US IPA: sɔs, sɑs
- RP IPA: sÉ”Ës
- Rhymes: -É”Ës, -É‘Ës depending on dialect
- Homophones: source in some non-rhotic accents
Origin
From Old French sauce, from Vulgar Latin salsa, noun use of the feminine of Latin salsus ("salted"), past participle of saliÅ ("I salt"), from sal.
Full definition of sauce
Noun
sauce
(countable and uncountable; plural sauces)- A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.apple sauce; mint sauce
- (UK, Australia) tomato sauce (similar to US tomato ketchup), as in:meat pie and tomato sauce
- (slang, usually "the") Alcohol, booze.
- Wodehouse Offing|XVII|... she was thinking of her first husband, who was a heel to end all heels and a constant pain in the neck to her till one night he most fortunately walked into the River Thames while under the influence of the sauce and didn't come up for days.
- Maybe you should lay off the sauce.
- (bodybuilding) Anabolic steroids.
- (art) A soft crayon for use in stump drawing or in shading with the stump.
- (internet slang) Alternative form of source used when requesting the source of an image.
- (dated) Cheek; impertinence; backtalk; sass.
- (US, obsolete slang, 1800s) Vegetables.
- 1833, John Neal, The Down-Easters, Volume 1, I wanted cabbage or potaters, or most any sort o' garden sarse … .
- 1882, w, Peck's Sunshine Chapter Unscrewing the Top of a Fruit Jar, and all would be well only for a remark of a little boy who, when asked if he will have some more of the sauce, says he "don't want no strawberries pickled in kerosene."
- (obsolete, UK, US, dialect) Any garden vegetables eaten with meat.
- BeverlyRoots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers ... they dish up various ways, and find them very delicious sauce to their meats, both roasted and boiled, fresh and salt.
Derived terms
Verb
- To add sauce to; to season.
- To cause to relish anything, as if with a sauce; to tickle or gratify, as the palate; to please; to stimulate.
- ShakespeareEarth, yield me roots;
Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
With thy most operant poison! - To make poignant; to give zest, flavour or interest to; to set off; to vary and render attractive.
- Sir Philip SidneyThen fell she to sauce her desires with threatenings.
- (colloquial) To treat with bitter, pert, or tart language; to be impudent or saucy to.
- ShakespeareI'll sauce her with bitter words.