GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 4 definitions

1.       
   Sour (?), a. [Compar. Sourer (?); superl. Sourest.] [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.]
   1. Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart.
   
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   All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite. Bacon.
   
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   2. Changed, as by keeping, so as to be acid, rancid, or musty, turned.
   
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   3. Disagreeable; unpleasant; hence; cross; crabbed; peevish; morose; as, “a man of a sour temper; a sour reply.” “A sour countenance.”  Swift.
   
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   He was a scholar . . .
   
   Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,
   
   But to those men that sought him sweet as summer. Shak.
   
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   4. Afflictive; painful. “Sour adversity.”  Shak.
   
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   5. Cold and unproductive; as, “sour land; a sour marsh.”
   
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   Sour dock (Bot.), sorrel. -- Sour gourd (Bot.), 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 (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.
   
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   Syn. -- Acid; sharp; tart; acetous; acetose; harsh; acrimonious; crabbed; currish; peevish.
   
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2.       
   Sour, n. A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.  Spenser.
   
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3.       
   Sour, v. t. [AS. srian 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”.
   
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   So the sun's heat, with different powers,
   
   Ripens the grape, the liquor sours. Swift.
   
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   2. To make cold and unproductive, as soil.  Mortimer.
   
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   3. To make unhappy, uneasy, or less agreeable.
   
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   To sour your happiness I must report,
   
   The queen is dead. Shak.
   
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   4. To cause or permit to become harsh or unkindly. “Souring his cheeks.”  Shak.
   
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   Pride had not sour'd nor wrath debased my heart. Harte.
   
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   5. To macerate, and render fit for plaster or mortar; as, “to sour lime for business purposes”.
   
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4.       
   Sour, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Soured (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Souring.] To become sour; to turn from sweet to sour; as, “milk soon sours in hot weather; a kind temper sometimes sours in adversity.”
   
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   They keep out melancholy from the virtuous, and hinder the hatred of vice from souring into severity. Addison.
   
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