adjective
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impertinent
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pert; jaunty
a saucy hat
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of saucy
Explanation
You can use saucy to describe someone who likes to cause trouble, but usually in a playful and funny way. Saucy is also a good word for a person who really likes to flirt. In the novel Oliver Twist, the character the Artful Dodger goes to court for stealing. During his hearing, the ten-year-old screams, “I am an Englishman; where are my rights?” Saucy words from a saucy child. A saucy comment makes people gasp because it’s surprising and a little dangerous or edgy. Saucy can also describe a person who is boldly flirtatious.
Vocabulary lists containing saucy
Words from Shakespearean Insults
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Twelfth Night
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"Two Kinds" by Amy Tan
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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:
This creates a built-in sauce to serve with, so all you need is jasmine rice or creamy mashed potatoes to catch the saucy goodness.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
Meal one: Something saucy, a little elegant Early in the week, I like to lean into moisture — something that coaxes the chicken back to life in a way that feels intentional, not remedial.
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026
She’d come out singing “I Feel for You” — saucy, casual, effortlessly funky — then glided through “Do You Love What You Feel” and “What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2025
Berwick spent more than 25 years building Bravo into a saucy reality TV hit-making machine, with such shows as “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” “Real Housewives” and “Love Island.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2025
So I stared at my bird, the beautiful details of the new feathers, the fernlike lashes along the lids, the saucy bristles at the base of the beak.
From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
Green has a toothier texture and fresher flavor; red is saucier with dusky, earthen undertones.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
It is launching improvements to its burgers including softer buns that are toasted and saucier Big Macs.
From Reuters ● Apr. 25, 2023
Here, you'll find traditional methods for cooking risotto in a large skillet or saucier, as well as a modern-day technique, which calls for cooking risotto in an Instant Pot.
From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2022
And he has also put his stamp on some shapes like a wide, two-handled rondeau and a saucier, new to Hestan’s inventory.
From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2022
She looked much the same as when last we saw her, a trifle saucier, perhaps, but that was only natural, said her friends, seeing that she had to look after madcap Jack.
From The Fire Trumpet A Romance of the Cape Frontier by Bertram Mitford
Ernst Lubitsch is best remembered today for directing some of the wittiest, sauciest Hollywood romantic comedies of the 1930s and ’40s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
The new culinary spinoff “Chef’s Table: BBQ” travels the world in search of the smokiest, sauciest, rib-stickingest barbecue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2020
At 66, John Scofield remains one of jazz’s sauciest improvisers.
From New York Times ● Sep. 28, 2018
Shirky’s was only the sauciest form of an argument I heard whenever I mentioned to my techno-utopian friends that I identified with Carr’s distress.
From Slate ● Aug. 16, 2018
He was the sauciest, spunkiest little fellow, and white as muslin.
From Laddie; a true blue story by Gene Stratton-Porter
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.
