sauce

[ saws ]

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.

verb (used with object)

, sauced, sauc·ing.

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

/ 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

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

Derived Forms

• ˈsauceless, adjective

Other Words From

• sauceless adjective
• over·sauce verb (used with object) oversauced oversaucing

Word History and Origins

Origin of sauce¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of sauce¹

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

Idioms and Phrases

In addition to the idiom beginning with sauce , also see hit the bottle (sauce) .

Example Sentences

The latter was a macrobiotics company established in 1961 that got its start importing products like soy sauce from Japan and that eventually developed brown rice cakes in the 1970s — the prototype for the larger snack trend.

From Eater

We have a lab where we have focused on making mostly fermented products ranging from hot sauces to salts to soy sauce and versions of miso.

From Fortune

After all, without that secret sauce, an outright buy becomes a lot less desirable.

From Fortune

While designed to mist out oils, the dispenser can also be used for many different seasonings, such as vinegars, soy sauce, lime juice and more.

From Popular-Science

From September 8 until October 4, McDonald’s will be serving the Please Millennials and Gen Z, Take Some Interest in Us Meal “Travis Scott Meal,” which consists of a quarter pounder with cheese, bacon and lettuce, a Sprite, and fries with BBQ sauce.

From Eater

Serve with the warm sauce and your choice of ice cream, whipped cream, or yogurt.

From The Daily Beast

Combine the beans and onion sauce in a 9x9-inch casserole dish and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

From The Daily Beast

Continue to cook until the sauce has reduced by three quarters.

From The Daily Beast

Finish the sauce by putting the roasting pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat.

From The Daily Beast

The future congressman also had some spaghetti but no sauce.

From The Daily Beast

Marriage is like Mayonnaise sauce, either a great success or an absolute and entire failure.

From Project Gutenberg

It is to be feared that like the sauce of sauces in the hands of the inexperienced cook, the result is more than doubtful.

From Project Gutenberg

Mac took that pretty hard, and came mighty near making the major eat his words with gunpowder sauce on the side.

From Project Gutenberg

I must first make a dish of apple-sauce for the seven and seventy guests who are coming to my wedding-feast.

From Project Gutenberg

From the tables outside, one can see into the small kitchen, with its polished copper sauce-pans hanging about the grill.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• dressing
• flavoring
• gravy
• relish