sauce
Americannoun
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sauces
plural
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any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.
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stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.
cranberry sauce.
-
something that adds piquance or zest.
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Informal. sauciness; impertinence; impudence.
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Slang. Usually the sauce hard liquor.
He's on the sauce again.
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Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.
verb (used with object)
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sauces,
present (3rd person singular)
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sauced,
past participle, past
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saucing
present participle
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to dress or prepare with sauce; season.
meat well sauced.
-
to make a sauce of.
Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.
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to give piquance or zest to.
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to make agreeable or less harsh.
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Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.
noun
-
any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour
-
anything that adds piquancy
-
stewed fruit
-
dialect vegetables eaten with meat
-
informal impudent language or behaviour
verb
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to prepare (food) with sauce
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to add zest to
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to make agreeable or less severe
-
informal to be saucy to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
saucesimple
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saucessimple
-
have saucedperfect
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has saucedperfect
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am saucingprogressive
-
are saucingprogressive
-
is saucingprogressive
-
have been saucingperfect progressive
-
has been saucingperfect progressive
Past
-
saucedsimple
-
had saucedperfect
-
was saucingprogressive
-
were saucingprogressive
-
had been saucingperfect progressive
Future
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”; see also salt 1
Explanation
A sauce is a nearly-liquid or soft topping or condiment for food. You might prefer your spaghetti with tomato sauce and your broccoli with cheese sauce. The cuisine of every country and region has its own sauces, from chutney served with Indian dosas to Hollandaise sauce on eggs Benedict and caramel sauce dolloped on sticky toffee pudding. You can even use sauce as a fancy verb: "Shall I sauce the beef?" Figuratively, to sauce someone is to speak in an impudent or cheeky way.
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:
A delicious, slender bean-and-cheese burrito with no sauce at the venerable Al & Bea’s in Boyle Heights is going for six bucks and change right now when it was about $2 cheaper two years ago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
For this cold noodle dish from Gu Grocery, blend toasted sesame seeds with soy sauce, rice vinegar, pickled mustard greens, and orange zest and juice for maximum flavor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Double sauce is not necessary, but I like a little indulgence underscoring the practicality of a packable meal.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
Items like honey chicken and cilantro lime sauce proved to be popular.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
There was a bowl set out for him filled with off-yellow pasta swamped in bright orange sauce.
From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
Nobody wants to order mozzarella sticks anymore, they want the adventure of finding the best secret combo of mozzarella sticks dipped into various sauces in the cornucopia of a Chili’s Triple Dipper.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
Their crunch interrupts the softness of the turkey, cheese and sauces; their salt seasons the sandwich; and their pucker sharpens the lemon mayo and smoky-sweet romesco.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
Last year, Evans told The Times that the interview format, with its squirm-inducing sauces, was a tactic to turn what might otherwise be a typical press tour interview into something raw and real.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Emma Robins, from Reading, says broccoli hidden in pesto pasta is a favourite for her three-year-old son Alfred, as well as veg pulsed into pasta sauces.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Together we made soups and sauces and all kinds of cool stuff.
From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya
Ferrell said later that he was glad to be in the back row because it meant nobody behind him got sauced.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
The capers themselves are fried to create a crisp garnish for the sauced asparagus.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 12, 2023
Riding the wave of an obsessive interest in all forms of fried chicken, crispy chicken skins are the base for nachos at pop-ups, and sauced and spiced as appetizers in restaurants.
From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2022
That was topped with pickled red onion, pickle slices and coleslaw, before being sauced with hot maple syrup and a barbecue ranch dressing.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2022
"Her page. She invites you to sup with her again. There's to be a haunch of venison, she says, a brace of stuffed geese sauced with mulberries, and—" "—her daughter," Tyrion finished sourly.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Of this generous, very pretty platter, my only sorrow was an uneven saucing, leaving one side somewhat bereft of the overall excellence.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
Little did she know that I did, and obviously still do, find a deep, personal satisfaction with all things chopping, sauteing, saucing, cooking and roasting.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2023
Ms. Sarikaya laughed and then the two of them discussed whether to blanch noodles before saucing them; Ms. Olsen prefers a quick boil, while Ms. Sarikaya worries that it will leave the noddles too watery.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2017
But for the last couple of weeks, two guys known for making pizzas in Altadena have been frying and saucing excellent chicken wings out of a corner of the store.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2016
You're a good fellow, Philip, and I beg your pardon for saucing you.
From A Great Emergency and Other Tales by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
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.
