Adjacent Words

Sauce definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SAUCE, n. [L. salsus, salt, from sal.]
1. A mixture or composition to be eaten with food for improving its relish.
High sauces and rich spices are brought from the Indies.
2. In New England, culinary vegetables and roots eaten with flesh. This application of the word falls in nearly with the definition.
Roots, 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.
Sauce consisting of stewed apples, is a great article in some parts of New England; but cranberries make the most delicious sauce.
To serve one the same sauce, is to retaliate one injury with another. [Vulgar.]
SAUCE, v.t.
1. To accompany meat with something to give it a higher relish.
2. To gratify with rich tastes; as, to sauce the palate.
3. To intermix or accompany with any thing good, or ironically, with any thing bad.
Then fell she to sauce her desires with threatenings.
Thou say'st his meat was sauc'd with thy upbraidings.
4. To treat with bitter, pert or tart language. [Vulgar.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: flavorful relish or dressing or topping served as an accompaniment to food v
1: behave saucily or impudently towards
2: dress (food) with a relish
3: add zest or flavor to, make more interesting; "sauce the roast"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin salsa, feminine of salsus salted, from past participle of sallere to salt, from sal salt — more at salt Date: 14th century 1. a condiment or relish for food; especially a fluid dressing or topping 2. something that adds zest or piquancy 3. stewed fruit eaten with other food or as a dessert 4. pert or impudent language or actions 5. slang liquor — used with the II. transitive verb (sauced; saucing) Date: 15th century 1. a. to dress with relish or seasoning b. to cover or serve with a sauce 2. a. archaic to modify the harsh or unpleasant characteristics of b. to give zest or piquancy to 3. to be rude or impudent to

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 any of various liquid or semi-solid preparations taken as a relish with food; the liquid constituent of a dish (mint sauce; tomato sauce; chicken in a lemon sauce). 2 something adding piquancy or excitement. 3 colloq. impudence, impertinence, cheek. 4 US stewed fruit etc. eaten as dessert or used as a garnish. --v.tr. 1 colloq. be impudent to; cheek. 2 archaic a season with sauce or condiments. b add excitement to. Phrases and idioms: sauce-boat a kind of jug or dish used for serving sauces etc. sauce for the goose what is appropriate in one case (by implication appropriate in others). Derivatives: sauceless adj. Etymology: ME f. OF ult. f. L salsus f. salere sals- to salt f. sal salt

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sauce Sauce, n. [F., fr. OF. sausse, LL. salsa, properly, salt pickle, fr. L. salsus salted, salt, p. p. of salire to salt, fr. sal salt. See Salt, and cf. Saucer, Souse pickle, Souse to plunge.] 1. A composition of condiments and appetizing ingredients eaten with food as a relish; especially, a dressing for meat or fish or for puddings; as, mint sauce; sweet sauce, etc. ``Poignant sauce.'' --Chaucer. High sauces and rich spices fetched from the Indies. --Sir S. Baker. 2. Any garden vegetables eaten with meat. [Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U.S.] --Forby. Bartlett. Roots, 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. --Beverly. 3. Stewed or preserved fruit eaten with other food as a relish; as, apple sauce, cranberry sauce, etc. [U.S.] ``Stewed apple sauce.'' --Mrs. Lincoln (Cook Book). 4. Sauciness; impertinence. [Low.] --Haliwell. To serve one the same sauce, to retaliate in the same kind. [Vulgar]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sauce Sauce (s[add]s), v. t. [Cf. F. saucer.] [imp. & p. p. Sauced (s[add]st); p. pr. & vb. n. Saucing (s[add]"s[i^]ng).] 1. To accompany with something intended to give a higher relish; to supply with appetizing condiments; to season; to flavor. 2. To cause to relish anything, as if with a sauce; to tickle or gratify, as the palate; to please; to stimulate; hence, to cover, mingle, or dress, as if with sauce; to make an application to. [R.] Earth, yield me roots; Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate With thy most operant poison! --Shak. 3. To make poignant; to give zest, flavor or interest to; to set off; to vary and render attractive. Then fell she to sauce her desires with threatenings. --Sir P. Sidney. Thou sayest his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings. --Shak. 4. To treat with bitter, pert, or tart language; to be impudent or saucy to. [Colloq. or Low] I'll sauce her with bitter words. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sauce Sauce (s[=o]s), n. [F.] (Fine Art) A soft crayon for use in stump drawing or in shading with the stump.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(sauces) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. A sauce is a thick liquid which is served with other food. ...pasta cooked in a sauce of garlic, tomatoes, and cheese. ...vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. N-MASS

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Seasoning, relish, condiment, appetizing compound.

Moby Thesaurus

Colbert, French dressing, Italian dressing, Lorenzo dressing, Ritz sauce, Russian dressing, Smitane, Soubise, alcohol, all sorts, allemande, answer back, aqua vitae, assemblage, assortment, audacity, back talk, backchat, booze, bourguignonne, brass, brazenness, broad spectrum, brown sauce, budge, butter, cataplasm, cheek, cheekiness, condiment, conglomeration, corpse reviver, cream sauce, crush, crust, dash, dental pulp, disrespect, disrespectfulness, drink, duck sauce, egg sauce, espagnole, firewater, flavor, gall, gallimaufry, gravy, green sauce, grog, hash, hint, hodgepodge, hooch, hotchpot, hotchpotch, impertinence, impudence, infusion, inkling, insolence, intimation, jaw, juice, jumble, likker, lip, magpie, marinara, mash, mayonnaise, medicine, medley, melange, mess, mingle-mangle, miscellany, mishmash, mix, mixed bag, mole, mouth, mush, nerve, odds and ends, olio, olla podrida, omnium-gatherum, paper pulp, paprika sauce, paste, pasticcio, pastiche, patchwork, pepper, pepper sauce, pertness, pith, plaster, porridge, potpourri, poulette, poultice, provoke, pudding, pulp, pulp lead, pulpwood, rag pulp, ravigote sauce, remoulade sauce, roux, salad, salad dressing, salmagundi, salt, sass, sassiness, sauciness, savor, scramble, season, seasoning, shade, shallot sauce, smack, smash, snake medicine, soupcon, spice, sponge, sprinkling, squash, stew, suggestion, sulfate pulp, sulfite pulp, suspicion, sweet-and-sour sauce, taint, talk back, tartar sauce, tempering, thought, tiger milk, tinct, tincture, tinge, tint, touch, trace, vestige, vinaigrette, what you will, white lead, wood pulp