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, sauc·ing.

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

Derived Forms

• ˈsauceless, adjective

Other Words From

• sauceless adjective
• over·sauce verb (used with object) oversauced oversaucing

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

In addition to the idiom beginning with sauce , also see hit the bottle (sauce) .

Example Sentences

Your choice of squeeze-bottle sauce is added inside, followed by the hot dog, which evenly distributes the sauce, creating a wildly addictive and affordable meal at roughly $3 to $4 apiece.

From Salon

The Swedish checklist recommends potatoes, cabbage, carrots and eggs along with tins of bolognese sauce and prepared blueberry and rosehip soup.

From BBC

Additionally, Red Lobster tweaked its tartar sauce recipe following complaints from several fans on TikTok.

From Salon

I love that the menu has a dish with albufera sauce on it, too, which I always think is so underutilized.

From Salon

For the last seven years, Kammerer has been working with koji mold, or Aspergillus oryzae, which is widely used in Japanese cuisine to ferment soybeans and make things like soy sauce and miso.

From Salon

Related Words

• dressing
• flavoring
• gravy
• relish