sauce
Americannoun
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sauces
plural
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any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.
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stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.
cranberry sauce.
-
something that adds piquance or zest.
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Informal. sauciness; impertinence; impudence.
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Slang. Usually the sauce hard liquor.
He's on the sauce again.
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Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.
verb (used with object)
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sauces,
present (3rd person singular)
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sauced,
past participle, past
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saucing
present participle
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to dress or prepare with sauce; season.
meat well sauced.
-
to make a sauce of.
Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.
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to give piquance or zest to.
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to make agreeable or less harsh.
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Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.
noun
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any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour
-
anything that adds piquancy
-
stewed fruit
-
dialect vegetables eaten with meat
-
informal impudent language or behaviour
verb
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to prepare (food) with sauce
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to add zest to
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to make agreeable or less severe
-
informal to be saucy to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
saucesimple
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saucessimple
-
have saucedperfect
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has saucedperfect
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am saucingprogressive
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are saucingprogressive
-
is saucingprogressive
-
have been saucingperfect progressive
-
has been saucingperfect progressive
Past
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saucedsimple
-
had saucedperfect
-
was saucingprogressive
-
were saucingprogressive
-
had been saucingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sauce
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus “salted,” past participle of sallere “to salt,” derivative of sāl “salt”; see also salt 1
Explanation
A sauce is a nearly-liquid or soft topping or condiment for food. You might prefer your spaghetti with tomato sauce and your broccoli with cheese sauce. The cuisine of every country and region has its own sauces, from chutney served with Indian dosas to Hollandaise sauce on eggs Benedict and caramel sauce dolloped on sticky toffee pudding. You can even use sauce as a fancy verb: "Shall I sauce the beef?" Figuratively, to sauce someone is to speak in an impudent or cheeky way.
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:
The smell hits first, garlic and char on skewered meat, chiles brushed over buns, oyster sauce mingling with the syrupy edge of black vinegar on sizzling noodles.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
The peppercorn sauce is done with all Indian spices.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
For this cold noodle dish from Gu Grocery, blend toasted sesame seeds with soy sauce, rice vinegar, pickled mustard greens, and orange zest and juice for maximum flavor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Items like honey chicken and cilantro lime sauce proved to be popular.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
After they said grace, Felix took a massive scoop of spaghetti and poured a ladle of sauce on top.
From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty
Along with six all-beef hot dogs and six sauces, the $60 tower comes with waffle fries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
I am an avowed condiment hound, especially when two sauces are doing different jobs.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
Emma Robins, from Reading, says broccoli hidden in pesto pasta is a favourite for her three-year-old son Alfred, as well as veg pulsed into pasta sauces.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Football stadiums, air conditioning, the sheer variety—all the hot sauces, and 50 states with different rules.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
She demanded other dishes, special preparations, sauces g/acees, a blanquette of veal seasoned with oysters, chapon Flandrois in white wine, pluck and numbles rubbed with Ceylon herbs.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
Ferrell said later that he was glad to be in the back row because it meant nobody behind him got sauced.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
The capers themselves are fried to create a crisp garnish for the sauced asparagus.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 12, 2023
"What distinguishes us from other traditional cuisines is that most of our dishes are sauced," says Toledo.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2023
Mile 11 of Interstate 55, in Memphis, was sauced up.
From New York Times ● Aug. 31, 2022
“Oh, every penny... but never a groat more, my lord. You’ll get the meal you bargained for, but it won’t be sauced with gratitude, and in the end it will not nourish you.”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
While explaining that the paper used to occupy the whole building, employing over 1000 people, our frenemy Ken remarks, “That’s absolutely insane, if I do say so myself,” saucing each word with condescension.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2025
Of this generous, very pretty platter, my only sorrow was an uneven saucing, leaving one side somewhat bereft of the overall excellence.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
Ms. Sarikaya laughed and then the two of them discussed whether to blanch noodles before saucing them; Ms. Olsen prefers a quick boil, while Ms. Sarikaya worries that it will leave the noddles too watery.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2017
But for the last couple of weeks, two guys known for making pizzas in Altadena have been frying and saucing excellent chicken wings out of a corner of the store.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2016
You're a good fellow, Philip, and I beg your pardon for saucing you.
From A Great Emergency and Other Tales by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
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.
