having an acid taste, resembling that of vinegar, lemon juice, etc.; tart.
rendered acid or affected by fermentation; fermented.
producing the one of the four basic taste sensations that is not bitter, salt, or sweet.
characteristic of something fermented.
a sour smell.
distasteful or disagreeable; unpleasant.
below standard; poor.
It was a sour effort all around, the kind of effort that doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
harsh in spirit or temper; acrimonious; disagreeable; peevish.
Agriculture. (of soil) having excessive acidity.
(of gasoline or the like) contaminated by sulfur compounds.
Music. off-pitch; badly produced.
a sour note.
something that is sour.
any of various cocktails consisting typically of whiskey or gin with lemon or lime juice and sugar and sometimes soda water, often garnished with a slice of orange, a maraschino cherry, or both.
any of various beers with a particularly acidic or tart taste, made so by acid-producing bacteria and yeast in the brew.
Sours are a good choice to go with deep-fried bar food.
an acid or an acidic substance used in laundering and bleaching to neutralize alkalis and to decompose residual soap or bleach.
to become sour, rancid, mildewed, etc.; spoil.
Milk sours quickly in warm weather. The laundry soured before it was ironed.
to become unpleasant or strained; worsen; deteriorate.
Relations between the two countries have soured.
to become bitter, disillusioned, or disinterested.
I guess I soured when I learned he was married.
My loyalty soured after his last book.
Agriculture. (of soil) to develop excessive acidity.
to make sour; cause sourness in.
What do they use to sour the mash?
to cause spoilage in; rot.
Defective cartons soured the apples.
to make bitter, disillusioned, or disagreeable.
One misadventure needn't have soured him. That swindle soured a great many potential investors.
having or denoting a sharp biting taste like that of lemon juice or vinegar Compare bitter
made acid or bad, as in the case of milk or alcohol, by the action of microorganisms
having a rancid or unwholesome smell
(of a person's temperament) sullen, morose, or disagreeable
(esp of the weather or climate) harsh and unpleasant
disagreeable; distasteful
a sour experience
(of land, etc) lacking in fertility, esp due to excessive acidity
(of oil, gas, or petrol) containing a relatively large amount of sulphur compounds
to become unfavourable or inharmonious
his marriage went sour
something sour
any of several iced drinks usually made with spirits, lemon juice, and ice
a whiskey sour
an acid used in laundering and bleaching clothes or in curing animal skins
First recorded before 1000; Middle English adjective and noun sure, soure, Old English adjective sūr; cognate with German sauer, Dutch zuur, Old Norse sūrr
If something is sour, it has a tangy or sharp flavor, like a lemon. Your brother may love the taste of limes, while they're way too sour for you. Sometimes this adjective is used to describe a fermented odor (the way milk smells when it goes bad), or a wrong note in music, or even a terrible mood: "Mom was acting so sour that I didn't even ask her if we could have pizza for dinner." Sour comes from the Old English sur, "sour, tart, or fermented."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Plus, Google and Tesla report revenue jumps, and padel tries to sour pickleball’s success.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Choose whatever farmers market flavor is calling to you—apricot, sour cherry, blackberry and red plum would all be excellent this time of year.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
Keegan's return as Newcastle United manager in 2008 swiftly turned sour and he never returned to the game.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
The Asian refineries have been replacing that medium sour crude with U.S. light sweet crude, which yields more gasoline and less diesel.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
Aunt Chipo was squatting inside, her mouth set in a sour line.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Anyone who's listened to Rodrigo's first two albums, 2021's Sour and 2023's Guts, knows the singer has endured a few calamitous heartbreaks, approaching them with a mix of anguish, confusion and feminine rage.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
I plunked down at a gaming station and embarrassed myself playing “Mario Kart” over a lunch of Diet Coke and Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream chips.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
I ask if Sour Patch Kids are gluten-free, and I get a warning about additives in the ingredient list.
From Slate ● May 6, 2026
Sour cream and cheese to add tang; pinto beans and red salsa for heartiness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
I still had some of Laleh’s Sour Patch Kids left.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
For the rest of us, however, inflation may leave a sourer taste.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2022
Pickle flavor hits all the right notes for people — especially those under 40 — who are looking for bigger, bolder, brighter and sourer flavors, food and beverage researchers said.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2022
For the sour element, lime juice is the classic choice, but lemon, grapefruit, sourer oranges, or any other mouth-puckering, citrusy fruit you have on hand would work too.
From Slate ● May 22, 2020
Now three decades old, the unused vacuum cleaners still bristle with the glory of newness, though the sculpture's beatification of consumer commodities tastes even sourer in our more ecologically minded age.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 25, 2014
Dad began, and then gave a sourer laugh than Oscar's.
From Four-Day Planet by Piper, H. Beam
"Has that not just left the sourest taste in the mouth at the end of this international summer? I'm dumbfounded," said England all-rounder Georgia Elwiss on BBC Test Match Special.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2022
The sourest, meanest mouth in the history of portraiture.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 23, 2020
Filipino cooking is among the world’s brightest, sweetest, sourest, and funkiest of world cuisines; by comparison, almost any other food seems bland.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 19, 2018
Perhaps the sourest note came from ABC with word that it’s canceling “Nashville” after four seasons.
From Seattle Times ● May 13, 2016
He had already received in the street a salutation from the Vicar, cordial as usual, with the very slightest bend of his neck, and the sourest expression of his mouth.
From The Vicar of Bullhampton by Trollope, Anthony
Everything reasonable from the first half quickly sours.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
The clatter of cutlery as an atmosphere sours over dinner.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
And new entities are struggling to gain traction as investor sentiment sours.
From Barron's ● Feb. 15, 2026
For Bessent, taking a strong position on who Trump should select for the job risks saddling him with the blame if Trump sours on his choice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 2, 2025
I wish I could take the words back as Soojin’s expression instantly sours.
From "Amina's Voice" by Hena Khan
It first soured over a decade ago, during the tenure of athletic director Pat Haden.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The alliance has genuinely soured in recent months.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
Swinney said at this point "relations soured significantly".
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
The latter is the hangover from a peripatetic childhood defined and dominated by his charismatic father, a once-idealistic scholar whose dreams of a Arab utopia soured into authoritarian megalomania.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
He stared at her, dumbfounded, but her expression immediately soured.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
Buffett said his decision to no longer give to the Gates Foundation wasn’t based on a souring of his relationship with Gates, or revelations relating to Gates’s ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Warren Buffett said his decision was not based on a souring of his relationship with Bill Gates or revelations about Gates’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
But it clearly shows that investors aren’t souring on South Korean chip companies just yet, even in the face of more volatility and AI-bubble fears.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
Each new alarm like this elicits anxieties and murmurs that souring private credit is about to become the new subprime mortgage crisis.
From Barron's ● May 30, 2026
‘Oh, no, no. Other babies can tell you whether it’s gas or a pin, or milk souring on them. But he’s a real Silsbee, and they never do, you know.’
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
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.
