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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Sauce

Sauce, n.

noun

n. [Fr. sauce, O. Fr. sauce, Pr., Sp., It., & L. Lat. salsa, properly salt-pickle, from Lat. salsus, salted, salt, p. p. of salire, to salt, from sal, salt. Cf. Souse.]

Sense 1. A mixture or composition to be eaten with food for improving its relish; a relishing condiment; appetizing addition to the principal material of a dish.

High sauces and rich spices are brought from the Indies. Baker.

Sense 2. Culinary vegetables and roots eaten with flesh. [Prov. Eng. Colloq. U. S.] Forby. Bartlett.

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. Beverly.

Sense 3. Sauciness; impertinence. [Low.] Halliwell.

To serve one the same sauce, to retaliate one injury with another. [Vulgar.]

Sauce, v. t.

verbtransitive

[imp. & p. p. SAUCED (sawst); p. pr. & vb. n. SAUCING.]

Sense 1. To accompany with something intended to give a higher relish; to supply with appetizing condiments.

Sense 2. To gratify with rich tastes; to please; hence, to cover, mingle, or dress, as if with sauce; to make an application to. [Rare.]

Earth, yield me roots; Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate With thy most operant poison. Shak.

Sense 3. To make poignant; to give zest, flavor, or interest to; to set off; to vary and render attractive.

Then fell she to sauce her desires with threatenings. Sidney.

Thou sayest his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings. Shak.

Sense 4. To treat with bitter, pert, or tart language; to be impudent or saucy to. [Low.]

I'll sauce her with bitter words. Shak.