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saucy

[saw-see]
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adjective, sau·ci·er, sau·ci·est.

impertinent; insolent: a saucy remark; a saucy child.
pert; boldly smart: a saucy little hat for Easter.

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RELATED WORDS

rude, brash, cheeky, flippant, arch, audacious, bold, brazen, combative, flip, forward, fresh, impertinent, impudent, insolent, intrusive, meddlesome, nervy, obtrusive, pert

Nearby words

  1. saucerization,
  2. sauch,
  3. saucier,
  4. saucily,
  5. sauciness,
  6. saud,
  7. saud, ibn,
  8. saudade,
  9. saudi,
  10. saudi arabia

Origin of saucy

First recorded in 1500–10; sauce + -y1
Related formssau·ci·ly, adverbsau·ci·ness, nouno·ver·sau·cy, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for saucy

British Dictionary definitions for saucy

saucy

adjective saucier or sauciest

impertinent
pert; jauntya saucy hat
Derived Formssaucily, adverbsauciness, noun
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 saucy

saucy

adj.

c.1500, "resembling sauce," later "impertinent, flippantly bold, cheeky" (1520s), from sauce (n.) + -y (2). The connecting notion is the figurative sense of "piquancy in words or actions." Cf. sauce malapert "impertinence" (1520s), and slang phrase to have eaten sauce "be abusive" (1520s). Also cf. salty in same senses.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper