sour grapes

See synonyms for sour grapes on Thesaurus.com

plural noun

pretended disdain for something one does not or cannot have: She said that she and her husband didn't want to join the club anyway, but it was clearly sour grapes.

Origin of sour grapes

First recorded in 1750–60; in allusion to Aesop's fable concerning the fox who, in an effort to save face, dismissed as sour those grapes he could not reach

Words Nearby sour grapes

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use sour grapes in a sentence

And they either get a case of sour grapes or they get on the train.
Mitt Romney’s Unruly Surrogates | Lloyd Grove | May 31, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
He attributes the moniker to sour grapes and professional jealousy.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio Slammed in Federal Civil Rights Probe Report | Terry Greene Sterling | December 16, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
sour grapes have led the once-visionary musician to become embittered.
Why Prince Hates the Internet | Michaelangelo Matos | July 8, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
I reckon, I've heerd my mother read out a text, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and th' children's teeth are set on edge."
North and South | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The sour grapes of Champagne spread dysentery in the Prussian army.
The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind | Herbert George Wells

The vintage of 1427 had been bad, that of the following year was poor and weak—more like sour grapes than wine.
The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) | Anatole France
Our ancestors have eaten sour grapes, and their childrens' teeth are set on edge.
Report of the Proceedings at the Examination of Charles G. Davis, Esq., on the Charge of Aiding and Abetting in the Rescue of a Fugitive Slave | Various
She thought of sour grapes, and of the fox who had lost his tail.
New Grub Street | George Gissing

British Dictionary definitions for sour grapes

sour grapes

noun

(functioning as singular) the attitude of affecting to despise something because one cannot or does not have it oneself

Origin of sour grapes

from a fable by Aesop

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with sour grapes

sour grapes

Disparaging what one cannot obtain, as in The losers' scorn for the award is pure sour grapes. This expression alludes to the Greek writer Aesop's famous fable about a fox that cannot reach some grapes on a high vine and announces that they are sour. In English the fable was first recorded in William Caxton's 1484 translation, “The fox said these raisins be sour.”

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