sour grapes

plural noun

1. 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.

sour grapes

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of sour grapes¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of sour grapes¹

from a fable by Aesop

Idioms and Phrases

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.”

Example Sentences

But it’s self-defeating for Democrats to dismiss her story as sour grapes.

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In a statement on Wednesday, Fox News said that the complaint is sour grapes from a network that’s failing to find an audience.

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On the other hand, it sounds like sour grapes when he says that he never had the opportunity to show that he was able to play.

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If there were any sour grapes over his ouster, he didn't let it show.

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“I think it’s f**king hilarious. Hilarious to watch the swamp struggle with the existential crisis that’s been shoved in their faces by the American people,” Santos said, chalking up the pushback to sour grapes.

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