sauce

[saws]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sauce ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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

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

something that adds piquance or zest.

Informal. impertinence; sauciness.

Slang. hard liquor (usually preceded by the): He's on the sauce again.

Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.

verb (used with object), sauced, sauc·ing.

to dress or prepare with sauce; season: meat well sauced.

to make a sauce of: Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.

to give piquance or zest to.

to make agreeable or less harsh.

Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.

Origin of sauce

1300–50; Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus salted, past participle of sallere to salt, derivative of sāl salt¹

Related formssauce·less, adjectiveo·ver·sauce, verb (used with object), o·ver·sauced, o·ver·sauc·ing.

Can be confusedsauce source

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for sauce

flavoring, gravy, relish, dressing, topping, dip, coulis, jus

Examples from the Web for sauce

Contemporary Examples of sauce

Continue to cook until the sauce has reduced by three quarters.
Make Carla Hall’s Roasted Pork Loin With Cranberries
Carla Hall
December 24, 2014
Finish the sauce by putting the roasting pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat.
Make Carla Hall’s Roasted Pork Loin With Cranberries
Carla Hall
December 24, 2014
The future congressman also had some spaghetti but no sauce.
Kerry Bentivolio: The Congressman Who Believes in Santa Claus
Ben Jacobs
December 24, 2014
Now you can scroll to the next direction on your recipe without getting batter or sauce all over your device.
The Daily Beast’s 2014 Holiday Gift Guide: For the Richard Hendriks in Your Life
Allison McNearney
November 29, 2014
“I think everything is about sauce… chicken is just chicken,” she says.
Kelis’s Comeback: The R&B Diva on New Album ‘Food,’ Legacy of ‘Milkshake,’ and the Nas Split
Marlow Stern
May 3, 2014

Historical Examples of sauce

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander: take that in your thought too.
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)
Samuel Richardson
Add the remainder of the celery and pour the sauce over this.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 2
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
Pears are most valuable when they are canned and used for sauce.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
The sauce to use depends on the dessert that it is to accompany.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 4
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
Beat the whites stiff and fold them carefully into the sauce.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 2
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

British Dictionary definitions for sauce

sauce

noun

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

anything that adds piquancy

US and Canadian stewed fruit

US dialect vegetables eaten with meat

informal impudent language or behaviour

verb (tr)

to prepare (food) with sauce

to add zest to

to make agreeable or less severe

informal to be saucy to

Derived Formssauceless, adjective

Word Origin for sauce

C14: via Old French from Latin salsus salted, from salīre to sprinkle with salt, from sal salt

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sauce

mid-14c., from Old French sauce, sausse, from Latin salsa "things salted, salt food," noun use of fem. singular or neuter plural of adjective salsus "salted," from past participle of Old Latin sallere "to salt," from sal (genitive salis) "salt" (see salt (n.)).

Meaning "something which adds piquancy to words or actions" is recorded from c.1500; sense of "impertinence" first recorded 1835 (see saucy, and cf. sass). Slang meaning "liquor" first attested 1940.

mid-15c., "to season," from sauce (n.). From 1862 as "to speak impertinently." Related: Sauced; saucing.

Idioms and Phrases with sauce

sauce

In addition to the idiom beginning with sauce

sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, what's

also see:

hit the bottle (sauce)