Adjacent Words

Sour definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SOUR, a.
1. Acid; having a pungent taste; sharp to the taste; tart; as, vinegar is sour; sour cider; sour beer.
2. Acid and austere or astringent; as, sunripe fruits are often sour.
3. Harsh of temper; crabbed; peevish; austere; morose; as a man of a sour temper.
4. Afflictive; as sour adversities. [Not in use.]
5. Expressing discontent or peevishness. He never uttered a sour word. The lord treasurer often looked on me with a sour countenance.
6. Harsh to the feelings; cold and damp; as sour weather.
7. Rancid; musty.
8. Turned, as milk; coagulated.
SOUR, n. An acid substance.
SOUR, v.t.
1. To make acid; to cause to have a sharp taste. So the sun's heat, with different pow'rs, ripens the grape, the liquor sours.
2. To make harsh, cold or unkindly. Tufts of grass sour land.
3. To make harsh in temper; to make cross, crabbed, peevish or discontented. Misfortunes often sour'd, nor wrath debas'd my heart.
4. To make uneasy or less agreeable. Hail, great king! To sour your happiness I must report the queen is dead.
5. In rural economy, to macerate, as lime, and render fir for plaster or mortar.
SOUR, v.i.
1. To become acid; to acquire the quality of tartness or pungency to the taste. Cider sours rapidly in the rays of the sun. When food sours in the stomach, it is evidence of imperfect digestion.
2. TO become peevish or crabbed. They hinder the hatred of vice from souring into severity.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: smelling of fermentation or staleness [syn: sour, rancid]
2: having a sharp biting taste [ant: sweet]
3: one of the four basic taste sensations; like the taste of vinegar or lemons
4: in an unpalatable state; "sour milk" [syn: off, sour, turned]
5: inaccurate in pitch; "a false (or sour) note"; "her singing was off key" [syn: false, off-key, sour]
6: showing a brooding ill humor; "a dark scowl"; "the proverbially dour New England Puritan"; "a glum, hopeless shrug"; "he sat in moody silence"; "a morose and unsociable manner"; "a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius"- Bruce Bliven; "a sour temper"; "a sullen crowd" [syn: dark, dour, glowering, glum, moody, morose, saturnine, sour, sullen] n
1: a cocktail made of a liquor (especially whiskey or gin) mixed with lemon or lime juice and sugar
2: the taste experience when vinegar or lemon juice is taken into the mouth [syn: sour, sourness, tartness]
3: the property of being acidic [syn: sourness, sour, acidity] v
1: go sour or spoil; "The milk has soured"; "The wine worked"; "The cream has turned--we have to throw it out" [syn: sour, turn, ferment, work]
2: make sour or more sour [syn: sour, acidify, acidulate, acetify] [ant: dulcify, dulcorate, edulcorate, sweeten]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Old English s?r; akin to Old High German s?r sour, Lithuanian s?rus salty Date: before 12th century 1. causing or characterized by the one of the four basic taste sensations that is produced chiefly by acids <sour pickles> — compare bitter, salt, sweet 2. a. (1) having the acid taste or smell of or as if of fermentation ; turned <sour milk> (2) of or relating to fermentation b. smelling or tasting of decay ; rancid, rotten <sour breath> c. (1) bad, wrong <a project gone sour> (2) hostile, disenchanted <went sour on Marxism> 3. a. unpleasant, distasteful b. cross, sullen c. not up to the usual, expected, or standard quality or pitch 4. acid in reaction — used especially of soil 5. containing malodorous sulfur compounds — used especially of petroleum products • sourish adjective • sourly adverb • sourness noun II. noun Date: before 12th century 1. a. something sour b. the primary taste sensation produced by acid stimuli 2. a cocktail consisting of a liquor (as whiskey), lemon or lime juice, sugar, and sometimes ice III. verb Date: 14th century intransitive verb to become sour transitive verb to make sour

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj., n., & v. --adj. 1 having an acid taste like lemon or vinegar, esp. because of unripeness (sour apples). 2 a (of food, esp. milk or bread) bad because of fermentation. b smelling or tasting rancid or unpleasant. 3 (of a person, temper, etc.) harsh; morose; bitter. 4 (of a thing) unpleasant; distasteful. 5 (of the soil) deficient in lime and usually dank. --n. 1 US a drink with lemon- or lime-juice (whisky sour). 2 an acid solution used in bleaching etc. --v.tr. & intr. make or become sour (soured the cream; soured by misfortune). Phrases and idioms: go (or turn) sour 1 (of food etc.) become sour. 2 turn out badly (the job went sour on him). 3 lose one's keenness. sour cream cream deliberately fermented by adding bacteria. sour grapes resentful disparagement of something one cannot personally acquire. sour mash US a brewing- or distilling-mash made acid to promote fermentation. Derivatives: sourish adj. sourly adv. sourness n. Etymology: OE sur f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sour Sour, n. A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect. --Spenser.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sour Sour, v. t. [AS. s?rian to sour, to become sour.] 1. To cause to become sour; to cause to turn from sweet to sour; as, exposure to the air sours many substances. So the sun's heat, with different powers, Ripens the grape, the liquor sours. --Swift. 2. To make cold and unproductive, as soil. --Mortimer. 3. To make unhappy, uneasy, or less agreeable. To sour your happiness I must report, The queen is dead. --Shak. 4. To cause or permit to become harsh or unkindly. ``Souring his cheeks.'' --Shak. Pride had not sour'd nor wrath debased my heart. --Harte. 5. To macerate, and render fit for plaster or mortar; as, to sour lime for business purposes.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sour Sour, a. [Compar. Sourer; superl. Sourest.] [OE. sour, sur, AS. s?r; akin to D. zuur, G. sauer, OHG. s?r, Icel. s?rr, Sw. sur, Dan. suur, Lith. suras salt, Russ. surovui harsh, rough. Cf. Sorrel, the plant.] 1. Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart. All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite. --Bacon. 2. Changed, as by keeping, so as to be acid, rancid, or musty, turned. 3. Disagreeable; unpleasant; hence; cross; crabbed; peevish; morose; as, a man of a sour temper; a sour reply. ``A sour countenance.'' --Swift. He was a scholar . . . Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, But to those men that sought him sweet as summer. --Shak. 4. Afflictive; painful. ``Sour adversity.'' --Shak. 5. Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh. Sour dock (Bot.), sorrel. Sour gourd (Bot.), the gourdlike fruit Adansonia Gregorii, and A. digitata; also, either of the trees bearing this fruit. See Adansonia. Sour grapes. See under Grape. Sour gum (Bot.) See Turelo. Sour plum (Bot.), the edible acid fruit of an Australian tree (Owenia venosa); also, the tree itself, which furnished a hard reddish wood used by wheelwrights. Syn: Acid; sharp; tart; acetous; acetose; harsh; acrimonious; crabbed; currish; peevish.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sour Sour, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Soured; p. pr. & vb. n. Souring.] To become sour; to turn from sweet to sour; as, milk soon sours in hot weather; a kind temper sometimes sours in adversity. They keep out melancholy from the virtuous, and hinder the hatred of vice from souring into severity. --Addison.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(sours, souring, soured) 1. Something that is sour has a sharp, unpleasant taste like the taste of a lemon. The stewed apple was sour even with honey. ADJ see also sweet and sour 2. Sour milk is milk that has an unpleasant taste because it is no longer fresh. ? fresh ADJ 3. Someone who is sour is bad-tempered and unfriendly. She made a sour face in his direction... ADJ • sourly 'Leave my mother out of it,' he said sourly. ADV: ADV with v 4. If a situation or relationship turns sour or goes sour, it stops being enjoyable or satisfactory. Even the European dream is beginning to turn sour... Their songs are filled with tales of love gone sour. ADJ 5. If a friendship, situation, or attitude sours or if something sours it, it becomes less friendly, enjoyable, or hopeful. If anything sours the relationship, it is likely to be real differences in their world-views... Her mood soured a little. VERB: V n, V 6. If you refer to someone's attitude as sour grapes, you mean that they say that something is worthless or undesirable because they want it themselves but cannot have it. Page's response to the suggestion that this might be sour grapes because his company lost the bid is: 'Life's too short for that.' PHRASE [disapproval]

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sour:

(1) bocer, "immature," "unripe": "The fathers have eaten sour grapes" (Jer 31:29 f; Eze 18:2; compare Isa 18:5 the King James Version).

(2) cur, "to turn aside," "degenerate": "Their drink is turned sour" (the King James Version margin "gone," the Revised Version margin "Their carouse is over").

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Acid, tart, pricked, sharp, acetous, acetose. 2. Cross, crabbed, morose, acrimonious, currish, surly, testy, touchy, cantankerous, crusty, fretful, peevish, petulant, pettish, snappish, waspish, snarling, cynical, froward, uncivil, rude, rough, harsh, ill-tempered, ill-natured, austere. 3. Bitter, unpleasant, disagreeable. 4. Gloomy, sad, dismal, morose, discontented, austere. 5. Rancid, musty, spoiled, bad, coagulated, turned, curdled, loppered. II. v. a. 1. Make acid, turn sour. 2. Imbitter, make unpleasant. III. v. n. Turn sour, become acid.

Moby Thesaurus

abrupt, absonant, acerb, acerbate, acerbic, acerbity, acescency, acescent, acetify, acid, acidic, acidify, acidity, acidulant, acidulate, acidulated, acidulent, acidulous, acidulousness, acrid, acrimonious, aftertaste, agent provocateur, aggravate, amaroidal, amplify, annoy, asperous, astringent, atonal, augment, bad, bad-tempered, bilious, biting, bitter, bitter as gall, blown, bread-and-butter pickle, brusque, build up, cacophonous, caustic, chokecherry, choleric, churlish, coarse, crab, crab apple, crabbed, crabby, cracked, cranky, cross, crusty, curdle, curdled, curt, cutting, deepen, deteriorate, diaphonic, dill pickle, disagreeable, disconsonant, discontented, discordant, disenchant, disharmonic, disharmonious, dislikable, displeasing, dissonant, distasteful, dry, dryness, dyspeptic, edgy, embitter, embittered, enhance, enlarge, envenom, escharotic, exacerbate, exasperate, ferment, fermented, flat, flavor, frowy, gamy, gloomy, go bad, go off, gone off, grating, green, green apple, greenness, grouchy, gust, hard, harsh, heat up, heighten, high, hot up, hyperacidity, ill-natured, ill-tempered, immelodious, impatient, increase, inharmonic, inharmonious, intensify, irritate, irritating, jaundiced, keen, lemon, lime, magnify, make acute, make worse, mordant, morose, musicless, nasty, nonmelodious, nose-tickling, off, off-key, off-tone, out of pitch, out of tone, out of tune, palate, peeve, peevish, penetrating, petulant, pickle, pickled, piercing, piquant, poignant, provoke, pungency, pungent, rancid, rank, raucous, reechy, relish, rough, salt, sapidity, sapor, savor, savoriness, sec, severe, sharp, sharpen, shrill, smack, snappish, sour as vinegar, sour balls, sour cream, sour grapes, sour pickle, sour-tempered, sourdough, soured, sourish, sourishness, sourness, spoil, spoiled, spoilt, stale, stinging, stomach, strident, strong, subacidity, sullen, sweet, tainted, tang, tart, tartish, tartishness, tartness, taste, terrible, testy, thankless, tongue, tooth, trenchant, tuneless, turn, turn sour, turned, ugly, unalluring, unappealing, unappetizing, unattractive, undelectable, undelicious, undesirable, unengaging, unenjoyable, unharmonious, uninviting, unlikable, unmelodious, unmusical, unpalatable, unpleasant, unpleasing, unripe, unripeness, unsavory, unsweet, unsweetened, unsweetness, untasteful, untunable, untuned, untuneful, unwelcome, verjuice, vex, vinegar, vinegariness, vinegarish, vinegarishness, vinegary, vitriolic, worsen, yogurt