sauce

American  

[saws] / sɔs /

noun

1. any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.

2. stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.

   cranberry sauce.

3. something that adds piquance or zest.

4. Informal. sauciness; impertinence; impudence.

5. Slang. Usually the sauce hard liquor.

   He's on the sauce again.

6. Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.

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verb (used with object)

sauced, saucing

1. to dress or prepare with sauce; season.

   meat well sauced.

2. to make a sauce of.

   Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.

3. to give piquance or zest to.

4. to make agreeable or less harsh.

5. Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.

sauce British  

/ sɔːs /

noun

1. any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour

2. anything that adds piquancy

3. stewed fruit

4. dialect vegetables eaten with meat

5. informal impudent language or behaviour

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verb

1. to prepare (food) with sauce

2. to add zest to

3. to make agreeable or less severe

4. informal to be saucy to

sauce Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing sauce

• hit the bottle (sauce)

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Other Word Forms

• oversauce verb (used with object)
• sauceless adjective

Etymology

Origin of sauce

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus “salted,” past participle of sallere “to salt,” derivative of sāl “salt”; salt ¹

Example Sentences

"Devolution, airport, universities, diverse economy and culture. Whatever Manchester-ism is, it is a special sauce hard to replicate elsewhere."

From BBC

Tomato sauce flies off her wooden spoon, splattering the chipped yellow cabinets.

From Literature

Under the breakup plan, one global company would focus on sauces, spreads and seasonings, while another would sell grocery staples in North America.

From The Wall Street Journal

One example showed a static link to purchase hot sauce at the bottom of the answer, labeled ‘sponsored’.

From Los Angeles Times

They shared fried pork dumplings in a sweet black sauce, and Glory even tried to teach him how to use chopsticks.

From Literature

Related Words

• dressing
• flavoring
• gravy
• relish