sauce

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

sauce, n. [F., fr. OF. sausse, LL. salsa, properly, salt pickle, fr. L. salsus salted, salt, p. p. of salire to salt, fr. sal salt. See Salt, and cf. Saucer, Souse pickle, Souse to plunge.].

•  A composition of condiments and appetizing ingredients eaten with food as a relish; especially, a dressing for meat or fish or for puddings; as, mint sauce; sweet sauce, etc.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

  "High sauces and rich spices fetched from the Indies."  [1913 Webster]
•  Any garden vegetables eaten with meat.  Forby. Bartlett.  [1913 Webster]

  "Roots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers . . . they dish up various ways, and find them very delicious sauce to their meats, both roasted and boiled, fresh and salt."  [1913 Webster]
•  Stewed or preserved fruit eaten with other food as a relish; as, apple sauce, cranberry sauce, etc.  Mrs. Lincoln (Cook Book).  [1913 Webster]
•  Sauciness; impertinence.  Haliwell.  [1913 Webster]

To serve one the same sauce, to retaliate in the same kind. [Vulgar]

sauce, v. t. [Cf. F. saucer.].

•  To accompany with something intended to give a higher relish; to supply with appetizing condiments; to season; to flavor.  [1913 Webster]
•  To cause to relish anything, as if with a sauce; to tickle or gratify, as the palate; to please; to stimulate; hence, to cover, mingle, or dress, as if with sauce; to make an application to.  [1913 Webster]

  "Earth, yield me roots;
  Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
  With thy most operant poison!"  [1913 Webster]
•  To make poignant; to give zest, flavor or interest to; to set off; to vary and render attractive.  [1913 Webster]

  "Then fell she to sauce her desires with threatenings."  [1913 Webster]

  "Thou sayest his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings."  [1913 Webster]
•  To treat with bitter, pert, or tart language; to be impudent or saucy to.  [1913 Webster]

  "I'll sauce her with bitter words."  [1913 Webster]

sauce, n. [F.].

 A soft crayon for use in stump drawing or in shading with the stump.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

sauce, n. & v.
--n.
1 any of various liquid or semi-solid preparations taken as a relish with food; the liquid constituent of a dish (mint sauce; tomato sauce; chicken in a lemon sauce).
2 something adding piquancy or excitement.
3 colloq. impudence, impertinence, cheek.
4 US stewed fruit etc. eaten as dessert or used as a garnish.
--v.tr.
1 colloq. be impudent to; cheek.
2 archaic a season with sauce or condiments. b add excitement to.

Idiom

sauce-boat a kind of jug or dish used for serving sauces etc. sauce for the goose what is appropriate in one case (by implication appropriate in others).

Derivative

sauceless adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF ult. f. L salsus f. salere sals- to salt f. sal salt

DEVIL DICTIONARY

sauce

n. The one infallible sign of civilization and enlightenment. A people with no sauces has one thousand vices; a people with one sauce has only nine hundred and ninety-nine. For every sauce invented and accepted a vice is renounced and forgiven.

THESAURUS

sauce

Colbert, French dressing, Italian dressing, Lorenzo dressing, Ritz sauce, Russian dressing, Smitane, Soubise, alcohol, all sorts, allemande, answer back, aqua vitae, assemblage, assortment, audacity, back talk, backchat, booze, bourguignonne, brass, brazenness, broad spectrum, brown sauce, budge, butter, cataplasm, cheek, cheekiness, condiment, conglomeration, corpse reviver, cream sauce, crush, crust, dash, dental pulp, disrespect, disrespectfulness, drink, duck sauce, egg sauce, espagnole, firewater, flavor, gall, gallimaufry, gravy, green sauce, grog, hash, hint, hodgepodge, hooch, hotchpot, hotchpotch, impertinence, impudence, infusion, inkling, insolence, intimation, jaw, juice, jumble, likker, lip, magpie, marinara, mash, mayonnaise, medicine, medley, melange, mess, mingle-mangle, miscellany, mishmash, mix, mixed bag, mole, mouth, mush, nerve, odds and ends, olio, olla podrida, omnium-gatherum, paper pulp, paprika sauce, paste, pasticcio, pastiche, patchwork, pepper, pepper sauce, pertness, pith, plaster, porridge, potpourri, poulette, poultice, provoke, pudding, pulp, pulp lead, pulpwood, rag pulp, ravigote sauce, remoulade sauce, roux, salad, salad dressing, salmagundi, salt, sass, sassiness, sauciness, savor, scramble, season, seasoning, shade, shallot sauce, smack, smash, snake medicine, soupcon, spice, sponge, sprinkling, squash, stew, suggestion, sulfate pulp, sulfite pulp, suspicion, sweet-and-sour sauce, taint, talk back, tartar sauce, tempering, thought, tiger milk, tinct, tincture, tinge, tint, touch, trace, vestige, vinaigrette, what you will, white lead, wood pulp

ROGET THESAURUS

sauce

Adjunct

N adjunct, addition, additament, additum, affix, appelidage, annexe, annex, augment, augmentation, increment, reinforcement, supernumerary, accessory, item, garnish, sauce, accompaniment, adjective, addendum, complement, supplement, continuation, rider, offshoot, episode, side issue, corollary, piece, flap, lappet, skirt, embroidery, trappings, cortege, tail, suffix, wing, additional, alate, alated, winged, in addition.

Mixture

N mixture, admixture, commixture, commixtion, commixion, intermixture, alloyage, matrimony, junction, combination, miscegenation, impregnation, infusion, diffusion suffusion, transfusion, infiltration, seasoning, sprinkling, interlarding, interpolation, adulteration, sophistication, tinge, tincture, touch, dash, smack, sprinkling, spice, seasoning, infusion, soupcon, alloy, amalgam, brass, chowchow, pewter, magma, half-and-half, melange, tertium quid, miscellany, ambigu, medley, mess, hotchpot, pasticcio, patchwork, odds and ends, all sorts, jumble, salad, sauce, mash, omnium gatherum, gallimaufry, olla-podrida, olio, salmagundi, potpourri, Noah's ark, caldron texture, mingled yarn, mosaic, half-blood, half-caste, mulatto, terceron, quarteron, quinteron, quadroon, octoroon, griffo, zambo, cafuzo, Eurasian, fustee, fustie, griffe, ladino, marabou, mestee, mestizo, quintroon, sacatra zebrule, catalo, cross, hybrid, mongrel, mixed, implex, composite, half-and-half, linsey-woolsey, chowchow, hybrid, mongrel, heterogeneous, motley, miscellaneous, promiscuous, indiscriminate, miscible, among, amongst, amid, amidst, with, in the midst of, in the crowd.

Malediction

N malediction, malison, curse, imprecation, denunciation, execration, anathema, ban, proscription, excommunication, commination, thunders of the Vatican, fulmination, maranatha, aspersion, disparagement, vilification, vituperation, abuse, foul language, bad language, strong language, unparliamentary language, billingsgate, sauce, evil speaking, cursing, profane swearing, oath, foul invective, ribaldry, rude reproach, scurrility, threat, more bark than bite, invective, cursing, cursed, Int, woe to!, beshrew!, ruat coelum!, ill betide, woe betide, confusion seize!, damn!, damn it!, damn you!, damn you to hell!, go to hell!, go to blazes!, confound!, blast!, curse!, devil take!, hang!, out with!, a plague upon!, out upon!, aroynt!, honi soit!, parbleu!, delenda est Carthago.

Condiment

N condiment, seasoning, sauce, spice, relish, appetizer, salt, mustard, grey poupon mustard, pepper, black pepper, white pepper, peppercorn, curry, sauce piquante, caviare, onion, garlic, pickle, achar, allspice, bell pepper, Jamaica pepper, green pepper, chutney, cubeb, pimento, capsicum, red pepper, chili peppers, cayenne, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, oregano, cloves, fennel, pot herbs, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, marjoram, frankincense, balm, myrrh, paprika, saffron, ginger, turmeric.