sauce

[saws]

noun

1. any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.

2. stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.

   cranberry sauce.

3. something that adds piquance or zest.

4. Informal.,  sauciness; impertinence; impudence.

5. Slang.,  Usually the sauce hard liquor.

   He's on the sauce again.

6. Archaic.,  garden vegetables eaten with meat.

verb (used with object)

sauced, saucing 

1. to dress or prepare with sauce; season.

   meat well sauced.

2. to make a sauce of.

   Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.

3. to give piquance or zest to.

4. to make agreeable or less harsh.

5. Informal.,  to speak impertinently or saucily to.

sauce

/ sɔːs /

noun

1. any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour

2. anything that adds piquancy

3. stewed fruit

4. dialect,  vegetables eaten with meat

5. informal,  impudent language or behaviour

verb

1. to prepare (food) with sauce

2. to add zest to

3. to make agreeable or less severe

4. informal,  to be saucy to

Other Word Forms

• sauceless adjective
• oversauce verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of sauce¹

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”; salt ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of sauce¹

C14: via Old French from Latin salsus salted, from salīre to sprinkle with salt, from sal salt

Idioms and Phrases

• hit the bottle (sauce)

Example Sentences

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

It promised that the scorched frill at the bottom of a skillet was not failure, but the start of a sauce.

From Salon

The omakase tower offers a selection of sushi, tuna tartare, spicy tuna crispy rice, sashimi, and rolls — perfect for those who enjoy heavily sauced sushi.

From Salon

Sometimes whipped into a creamy spread, sometimes tucked into cocktail sauce, always waiting to sneak in a little fire.

From Salon

Although soy sauce containers are made of a recyclable plastic - polyethylene - their small size means they struggle to be processed by machines properly.

From BBC

Related Words

• dressing 
• flavoring 
• gravy 
• relish