sass
1 Americannoun
-
stewed fruit; fruit sauce.
-
fresh vegetables.
noun
verb (used with object)
-
sasses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sassed,
past participle, past
-
sassing
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sasssimple
-
sassessimple
-
have sassedperfect
-
has sassedperfect
-
am sassingprogressive
-
are sassingprogressive
-
is sassingprogressive
-
have been sassingperfect progressive
-
has been sassingperfect progressive
Past
-
sassedsimple
-
had sassedperfect
-
was sassingprogressive
-
were sassingprogressive
-
had been sassingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sass1
First recorded in 1765–75; variant of sauce
Origin of sass2
1855–60, back formation from sassy 1
Explanation
Sass is a smart alecky or impudent reply. Your middle school teacher might warn you that once you get to high school, they won't put up with your sass. Use sass as a noun — or a verb, meaning to talk in a cheeky way: "Don't you dare sass your grandmother!" When someone teases you or speaks in an almost rude manner, they give you sass. This word emerged in the 19th century from the adjective sassy, which began as a variation on saucy, from the idea that words can be zesty, sharp, or spicy.
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.
See Examples For:
I had long admired her, especially the rollicking and indispensable “Slow Days, Fast Company,” first published in 1977, a charming and insightful series of stories bursting with pluck and sass.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
With serves touching 150mph and plenty of on-court sass, Shelton announced himself with his run to the New York semi-finals in 2023.
From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2025
Allison’s Angélique is just as much a standout, renewing the bawdy earthiness of Shakespeare’s nurse with contemporary sass and rousing singing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2025
Linda, with equal sass, replied: "Get over it".
From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2025
He slept wherever he chose, and he was also the only boy who dared sass a teacher.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
"Witty remarks won't make a difference," Sansa sasses, but she soothes the burn by telling him, quite tenderly, that he was the best of all her husbands.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2019
Even as she eye-rolls and sasses Christian, there is no demand with which she ultimately declines to comply, from skipping out on her work trip to committing to spend her life at his side.
From Slate ● Feb. 10, 2017
So instead, we get the lumpy neo-reggae of “Unapologetic Bitch,” in which she sasses a boy-toy: “See you trying to call me, but I blocked you on my phone.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 8, 2015
"No smoking--foreign, domestic or homegrown," one guide sasses near Epcot's 18-story Spaceship Earth geosphere.
From Time Magazine Archive
"She sasses back if you look at her, an' fergits everything, an' Snawdor says she mutters an' jabbers something awful in her sleep."
From Calvary Alley by Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice
Mr. Ghesquière’s modern-day stray cats had patchwork jackets sassed up with leopard print, but also great tailored pieces, like cocooning, almost corseted-looking blazers.
From New York Times ● May 15, 2017
Another sassed, “If you have to ask ..you havnt done it properly..LOL.”
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2014
She sassed the audience until it talked back.
From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2010
Jay Leno will be sociably sassed by fellow TV staples as he accepts the Kennedy Center’s 17th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Oct.
From Washington Post
“Did I just get sassed by a twelve-year-old?”
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
Jennie, Rosé, Jisoo and Lisa easily nailed a mix of Coachella cool and K-pop razzle-dazzle, stomping and sassing beneath a towering temple roof and making the most of the gigantic stage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2023
Lee steals every scene she's in, whether she's wordlessly transfixed by pulling a thread taut between her fingers or sassing a religious game player.
From Salon ● Dec. 29, 2021
In the course of sassing its forebears by burlesquing their excesses and teasing out their subtexts, the show hoots at the clichés of pop fiction and real life even as it indulges them.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 10, 2018
“If you took a family photo right now, you got Grandma with an oxygen tank, probably sassing the photographer.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 1, 2016
“When he walked away after sassing Mr. Crane and my daddy, he said it’d take an explosion to make us see.”
From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez
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.
