sour
Noun · Verb · AdjectiveOpen English WordNet
Verb (2)sours, soured, souring
Adjective (6)sourer, sourest
- smelling of fermentation or stalenessSynonyms: rancidOpposite fragrantSimilar malodorous, malodourous
- having a sharp biting tasteOpposite sweetSimilar acerb, lemony, acetose, subacid, acidicSee also dry, soured, tasty
- one of the four basic taste sensations; like the taste of vinegar or lemonsOpposite tastelessSimilar tasty
- in an unpalatable state“sour milk”Synonyms: offturnedOpposite unsouredSimilar soured
- inaccurate in pitch“a false (or sour) note”“her singing was off key”Synonyms: falseoff-keyOpposite harmoniousSimilar inharmonious, unharmonious
- showing a brooding ill humor“a dark scowl”“the proverbially dour New England Puritan”“a glum, hopeless shrug”“he sat in moody silence”“a morose and unsociable manner”“a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius — Bruce Bliven”“a sour temper”“a sullen crowd”Synonyms: darkdourgloweringglummoodymorosesaturninesullenOpposite good-naturedSimilar ill-natured
Noun (3)sours
- a cocktail made of a liquor (especially whiskey or gin) mixed with lemon or lime juice and sugarType of cocktailKinds whiskey sour, whisky sour
- the taste experience when vinegar or lemon juice is taken into the mouthSynonyms: sournesstartnessType of taste, taste sensationKinds acidity, acidulousness
- the property of being acidicSynonyms: sournessacidityType of taste propertyKinds vinegariness, acerbity
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Adjective having an acidic, sharp or tangy taste
- Spanish
- agrio
- French
- aigre
- German
- sauer
- Italian
- aspro
- Portuguese
- azedo
- Turkish
- ekşi
- Russian
- ки́слый kíslyj
- Arabic
- حَامِض ḥāmiḍ
- Chinese
- 酸 suān
- Japanese
- 酸っぱい suppai
35 more languages
- Dutch
- zuur
- Polish
- kwaśny
- Swedish
- sur
- Greek
- ξινός xinós
- Korean
- 시다 sida
- Indonesian
- asam
- Vietnamese
- chua
- Hungarian
- savanyú
- Portuguese (PT)
- azedo
- Chinese (Trad.)
- 酸 suān
- Albanian
- i thartë
- Breton
- trenk
- Catalan
- àcid
- Czech
- kyselý
- Danish
- sur
- Esperanto
- acida
- Estonian
- hapu
- Finnish
- hapan
- Georgian
- მჟავე mžave
- Hebrew
- חָמוּץ khamútz
- Icelandic
- súr
- Kurdish
- tirş
- Latvian
- skābs
- Lithuanian
- rūgštus
- Malagasy
- marikivy
- Norwegian
- sur
- Romanian
- acru
- Scottish Gaelic
- goirt
- Serbo-Croatian
- kiseo
- Slovak
- kyslý
- Slovenian
- kisel
- Swahili
- -chachu
- Walloon
- seur
- Welsh
- sur
- Yiddish
- זויער zoyer
Adjective made rancid by fermentation, etc
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: OE. sour, sur, AS. s…r; akin to D. zuur, G. sauer, OHG. s…r, Icel. s…rr, Sw. sur, Dan. suur, Lith. suras salt, Russ. surovui harsh, rough. Cf. Sorrel, the plant.
1. Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart.
All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite.— Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon
2. Changed, as by keeping, so as to be acid, rancid, or musty, turned.
3. Disagreeable; unpleasant; hence; cross; crabbed; peevish; morose; as, a man of a sour temper; a sour reply. “A sour countenance.” Jonathan Swift
He was a scholar... Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.— William Shakespeare
4. Afflictive; painful. “Sour adversity.” William Shakespeare
5. Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh.
Sour dock Botany, sorrel. — Sour gourd Botany, the gourdlike fruit Adansonia Gregorii, and Adansonia digitata; also, either of the trees bearing this fruit. See Adansonia. — Sour grapes. See under Grape. — Sour gum Botany See Turelo. — Sour plum Botany, the edible acid fruit of an Australian tree (Owenia venosa); also, the tree itself, which furnished a hard reddish wood used by wheelwrights.
Synonyms: Acid; sharp; tart; acetous; acetose; harsh; acrimonious; crabbed; currish; peevish.
A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect. Edmund Spenser
Origin: AS. s…rian to sour, to become sour.
1. To cause to become sour; to cause to turn from sweet to sour; as, exposure to the air sours many substances.
So the sun's heat, with different powers, Ripens the grape, the liquor sours.— Jonathan Swift
2. To make cold and unproductive, as soil. John Mortimer
3. To make unhappy, uneasy, or less agreeable.
To sour your happiness I must report, The queen is dead.— William Shakespeare
4. To cause or permit to become harsh or unkindly. “Souring his cheeks.” William Shakespeare
Pride had not sour'd nor wrath debased my heart.— Walter Harte
5. To macerate, and render fit for plaster or mortar; as, to sour lime for business purposes.
To become sour; to turn from sweet to sour; as, milk soon sours in hot weather; a kind temper sometimes sours in adversity.
They keep out melancholy from the virtuous, and hinder the hatred of vice from souring into severity.— Joseph Addison
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54