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:
If I’m feeling saucy, shredded iceberg and Swiss join the party.
From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2026
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
It's hard to resist dreaming about cookies, specialty cakes, rich meats and super saucy side dishes.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2024
“Call U Up,” a funny and brash single off his LP “Timeless,” was just saucy enough to turn heads all over the grounds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 17, 2024
“I told you we'd die before we ran out of dresses,” said Ruby, and all of her saucy bravado was gone.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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
Just as everyone in a restaurant kitchen has their roles to play, from saucier to sommelier, so too are roles assigned at holiday dinner.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2022
On the flip side, Stefanelli prefers fresh pasta in smoother, saucier dishes.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 23, 2022
There was one other individual belonging to the family circle, larger even than Bessie, stronger and saucier even than Rudolph, and but little older than Kitty.
From Po-No-Kah An Indian Tale of Long Ago by Dodge, Mary Mapes
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
I mean, the tuba players are always the sauciest ones in the band.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2024
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
If you gave me the sauciest god that ever sat on a cloud or breakfasted with the Village Idiot—'pon my word, I shouldn't know what to do with him.
From South Wind by Douglas, Norman
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.
