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

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

From Salon

At The Noortwyck, we have the foie gras butter that pairs with our Duck Bun and we also include it in the albufera sauce for our chicken dish.

From Salon

Democrats may instead be looking for someone who simply has the Sauce—a sort of inverse Trump who can win and hold voters’ attention in a Fragmented Media Landscape™️, whose perceived authenticity and realness will more than compensate for a “polarizing” personality and past or present espousal of positions that don’t necessarily match up with those of the median voter.

From Slate

But they know the Sauce when they see it.

From Slate

Stir-fried; used as a stuffing, filling, or basis of sauce; and even served as a fried snack, oncom is traditionally made by combining a bit of old oncom with something like soybean pulp and leaving it to ferment.

From Salon

Related Words

• dressing
• flavoring
• gravy
• relish