sweet-and-sour

American  

[sweet-n-souuhr, -sou-er] / ˈswit nˈsaʊər, -ˈsaʊ ər /

adjective

1. cooked with sugar and vinegar or lemon juice and often other seasonings.

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sweet-and-sour British  

adjective

1. (of food) cooked in a sauce made from sugar and vinegar and other ingredients

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Etymology

Origin of sweet-and-sour

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sweet-and-sour

That said, watching the sweet-and-sour sauce flying in slow motion is actually quite amusing.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026

Some lean into sweet-on-sweet, others gravitate toward sweet-and-sour or spicy-and-sweet combinations.

From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2025

The restaurant, which has served dishes like hot-pot grouper and tofu, and sweet-and-sour pork with pineapple to Torontonians for nearly 50 years, was briefly name-checked in “Euphoria.”

From New York Times ● May 6, 2024

The now-familiar sweet-and-sour flavour of General Tso's chicken was meant to woo a foreigner's taste buds, Mr Pei says.

From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2024

The smell of garlic, ginger, and sweet-and-sour chicken wafted through the air.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas