Sour

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Sour, a. [OE. sour, sur, AS. sr; akin to D. zuur, G. sauer, OHG. sr, Icel. srr, Sw. sur, Dan. suur, Lith. suras salt, Russ. surovui harsh, rough. Cf. Sorrel, the plant.].

•  Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart.  [1913 Webster]

  "All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite."  [1913 Webster]
•  Changed, as by keeping, so as to be acid, rancid, or musty, turned.  [1913 Webster]
•  Disagreeable; unpleasant; hence; cross; crabbed; peevish; morose; as, a man of a sour temper; a sour reply.  Swift.  [1913 Webster]

  "He was a scholar . . .
  Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,
  But to those men that sought him sweet as summer."  [1913 Webster]
•  Afflictive; painful.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh.  [1913 Webster]

Sour dock (Bot.), sorrel. -- Sour gourd (Bot.), the gourdlike fruit Adansonia Gregorii, and A. digitata; also, either of the trees bearing this fruit. See Adansonia. -- Sour grapes. See under Grape. -- Sour gum (Bot.) See Turelo. -- Sour plum (Bot.), the edible acid fruit of an Australian tree (Owenia venosa); also, the tree itself, which furnished a hard reddish wood used by wheelwrights.

Syn. -- Acid; sharp; tart; acetous; acetose; harsh; acrimonious; crabbed; currish; peevish.

Sour, n. 

 A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.  Spenser.  [1913 Webster]

Sour, v. t. [AS. srian to sour, to become sour.].

•  To cause to become sour; to cause to turn from sweet to sour; as, exposure to the air sours many substances.  [1913 Webster]

  "So the sun's heat, with different powers,
  Ripens the grape, the liquor sours."  [1913 Webster]
•  To make cold and unproductive, as soil.  Mortimer.  [1913 Webster]
•  To make unhappy, uneasy, or less agreeable.  [1913 Webster]

  "To sour your happiness I must report,
  The queen is dead."  [1913 Webster]
•  To cause or permit to become harsh or unkindly.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

  "Pride had not sour'd nor wrath debased my heart."  [1913 Webster]
•  To macerate, and render fit for plaster or mortar; as, to sour lime for business purposes.  [1913 Webster]

Sour, v. i. 

 To become sour; to turn from sweet to sour; as, milk soon sours in hot weather; a kind temper sometimes sours in adversity.  [1913 Webster]
"They keep out melancholy from the virtuous, and hinder the hatred of vice from souring into severity."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Sour, adj., n., & v.
--adj.
1 having an acid taste like lemon or vinegar, esp. because of unripeness (sour apples).
2 a (of food, esp. milk or bread) bad because of fermentation. b smelling or tasting rancid or unpleasant.
3 (of a person, temper, etc.) harsh; morose; bitter.
4 (of a thing) unpleasant; distasteful.
5 (of the soil) deficient in lime and usually dank.
--n.
1 US a drink with lemon- or lime-juice (whisky sour).
2 an acid solution used in bleaching etc.
--v.tr. & intr. make or become sour (soured the cream; soured by misfortune).

Idiom

go (or turn) sour
1 (of food etc.) become sour.
2 turn out badly (the job went sour on him).
3 lose one's keenness. sour cream cream deliberately fermented by adding bacteria. sour grapes resentful disparagement of something one cannot personally acquire. sour mash US a brewing- or distilling-mash made acid to promote fermentation.

Derivative

sourish adj. sourly adv. sourness n.

Etymology

OE sur f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Sour

abrupt, absonant, acerb, acerbate, acerbic, acerbity, acescency, acescent, acetify, acid, acidic, acidify, acidity, acidulant, acidulate, acidulated, acidulent, acidulous, acidulousness, acrid, acrimonious, aftertaste, agent provocateur, aggravate, amaroidal, amplify, annoy, asperous, astringent, atonal, augment, bad, bad-tempered, bilious, biting, bitter, bitter as gall, blown, bread-and-butter pickle, brusque, build up, cacophonous, caustic, chokecherry, choleric, churlish, coarse, crab, crab apple, crabbed, crabby, cracked, cranky, cross, crusty, curdle, curdled, curt, cutting, deepen, deteriorate, diaphonic, dill pickle, disagreeable, disconsonant, discontented, discordant, disenchant, disharmonic, disharmonious, dislikable, displeasing, dissonant, distasteful, dry, dryness, dyspeptic, edgy, embitter, embittered, enhance, enlarge, envenom, escharotic, exacerbate, exasperate, ferment, fermented, flat, flavor, frowy, gamy, gloomy, go bad, go off, gone off, grating, green, green apple, greenness, grouchy, gust, hard, harsh, heat up, heighten, high, hot up, hyperacidity, ill-natured, ill-tempered, immelodious, impatient, increase, inharmonic, inharmonious, intensify, irritate, irritating, jaundiced, keen, lemon, lime, magnify, make acute, make worse, mordant, morose, musicless, nasty, nonmelodious, nose-tickling, off, off-key, off-tone, out of pitch, out of tone, out of tune, palate, peeve, peevish, penetrating, petulant, pickle, pickled, piercing, piquant, poignant, provoke, pungency, pungent, rancid, rank, raucous, reechy, relish, rough, salt, sapidity, sapor, savor, savoriness, sec, severe, sharp, sharpen, shrill, smack, snappish, sour as vinegar, sour balls, sour cream, sour grapes, sour pickle, sour-tempered, sourdough, soured, sourish, sourishness, sourness, spoil, spoiled, spoilt, stale, stinging, stomach, strident, strong, subacidity, sullen, sweet, tainted, tang, tart, tartish, tartishness, tartness, taste, terrible, testy, thankless, tongue, tooth, trenchant, tuneless, turn, turn sour, turned, ugly, unalluring, unappealing, unappetizing, unattractive, undelectable, undelicious, undesirable, unengaging, unenjoyable, unharmonious, uninviting, unlikable, unmelodious, unmusical, unpalatable, unpleasant, unpleasing, unripe, unripeness, unsavory, unsweet, unsweetened, unsweetness, untasteful, untunable, untuned, untuneful, unwelcome, verjuice, vex, vinegar, vinegariness, vinegarish, vinegarishness, vinegary, vitriolic, worsen, yogurt

ROGET THESAURUS

Sour

Aggravation

VB aggravate, render worse, heighten, embitter, sour, exacerbate, exasperate, envenom, enrage, provoke, tease, add fuel to the fire, add fuel to the flame, fan the flame, go from bad to worse.

Discourtesy

N discourtesy, ill breeding, ill manners, bad manners, ungainly manners, insuavity, uncourteousness rusticity, inurbanity, illiberality, incivility displacency, disrespect, procacity, impudence: barbarism, barbarity, misbehavior, brutality, blackguardism, conduct unbecoming a gentleman, grossieret_e, brusquerie, vulgarity, churlishness, spinosity, perversity, moroseness, sternness, austerity, moodishness, captiousness, cynicism, tartness, acrimony, acerbity, virulence, asperity, scowl, black looks, frown, short answer, rebuff, hard words, contumely, unparliamentary language, personality, bear, bruin, brute, blackguard, beast, unlicked cub, frump, crosspatch, saucebox, crooked stick, grizzly, discourteous, uncourteous, uncourtly, ill-bred, ill-mannered, ill-behaved, ill-conditioned, unbred, unmannerly, unmannered, impolite, unpolite, unpolished, uncivilized, ungenteel, ungentleman-like, ungentlemanly, unladylike, blackguard, vulgar, dedecorous, foul- mouthed foul-spoken, abusive, uncivil, ungracious, unceremonious, cool, pert, forward, obtrusive, impudent, rude, saucy, precocious, repulsive, uncomplaisant, unaccommodating, unneighborly, ungallant, inaffable, ungentle, ungainly, rough, rugged, bluff, blunt, gruff, churlish, boorish, bearish, brutal, brusque, stern, harsh, austere, cavalier, taint, sour, crabbed, sharp, short, trenchant, sarcastic, biting, doggish, caustic, virulent, bitter, acrimonious, venomous, contumelious, snarling, surly, surly as a bear, perverse, grim, sullen, peevish, untactful, impolitic, undiplomatic, artless, discourteously, with discourtesy, with a bad grace.

Sullenness

N sullenness, morosity, spleen, churlishness, irascibility, moodiness, perversity, obstinacy, torvity, spinosity, crabbedness, ill temper, bad temper, ill humor, bad humor, sulks, dudgeon, mumps, dumps, doldrums, fit of the sulks, bouderie, black looks, scowl, grouch, huff, sullen, sulky, ill-tempered, ill-humored, ill-affected, ill- disposed, grouty, in an ill temper, in a bad temper, in a shocking temper, in an ill humor, in a bad humor, in a shocking humor, out of temper, out of humor, knaggy, torvous, crusty, crabbed, sour, sour as a crab, surly, moody, spleenish, spleenly, splenetic, cankered, cross, crossgrained, perverse, wayward, humorsome, restiff, restive, cantankerous, intractable, exceptious, sinistrous, deaf to reason, unaccommodating, rusty, froward, cussed, dogged, grumpy, glum, grim, grum, morose, frumpish, in the sulks, out of sorts, scowling, glowering, growling, grouchy, peevish.

Sourness

VB be sour, sour, turn sour, set the teeth on edge, render sour, acidify, acidulate.

N sourness, acid, acidity, low pH, acetous fermentation, lactic fermentation, vinegar, verjuice, crab, alum, acetic acid, lactic acid, sour, acid, acidulous, acidulated, tart, crabbed, acetous, acetose, acerb, acetic, sour as vinegar, sourish, acescent, subacid, styptic, hard, rough, sour as a lemon, (4) Odor.