Definition of SOUR

sour

Plural: sours

Noun

  • a cocktail made of a liquor (especially whiskey or gin) mixed with lemon or lime juice and sugar
  • the taste experience when vinegar or lemon juice is taken into the mouth
  • the property of being acidic
  • The sensation of a sour taste.
  • A drink made with whiskey, lemon or lime juice and sugar.
  • Any cocktail containing lemon or lime juice.
  • A sweet/candy having a sharply sour taste.
  • A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.
  • The acidic solution used in souring fabric.

Verb

Verb Forms: soured, souring, sours

  • To make or become sour; to spoil or make unpleasant.
  • go sour or spoil
    • "The milk has soured"
  • make sour or more sour
  • To make sour.
  • To become sour.
  • To spoil or mar; to make disenchanted.
  • To become disenchanted.
  • To make (soil) cold and unproductive.
  • To macerate (lime) and render it fit for plaster or mortar.
  • To process (fabric) after bleaching, using hydrochloric acid or sulphuric acid to wash out the lime.

Adjective Satellite

  • smelling of fermentation or staleness
  • one of the four basic taste sensations; like the taste of vinegar or lemons
  • in an unpalatable state
    • "sour milk"
  • inaccurate in pitch
    • "a false (or sour) note"
  • showing a brooding ill humor; ; ; ; ; ; - Bruce Bliven
    • "a sour temper"

Adjective

  • Having a sharp, acidic taste; bitter or unpleasant.
  • having a sharp biting taste

Adj

  • Tasting of acidity.
  • Made rancid by fermentation, etc.
  • Tasting or smelling rancid.
  • Hostile or unfriendly.
  • Excessively acidic and thus infertile. (of soil)
  • Containing excess sulfur. (of petroleum)
  • Unfortunate or unfavorable.
  • Off-pitch, out of tune.

Examples

  • A bad tile draw can quickly SOUR a promising Words With Friends game.
  • a sour marsh
  • Don't drink that milk; it's turned sour.
  • He gave me a sour look.
  • His opponent’s face turned SOUR when he played ’QUIXOTIC’ for 100 points.
  • His sour breath makes it unpleasing to talk to him.
  • Lemons have a sour taste.
  • sour gas smells like rotten eggs
  • sour land
  • Too much lemon juice will sour the recipe.
  • We broke up after our relationship soured.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English sour, from Old English sūr (“sour”), from Proto-West Germanic *sūr, from Proto-Germanic *sūraz (“sour”), from Proto-Indo-European *súHros (“sour”).
Cognate with West Frisian soer, Dutch zuur (“sour”), Low German suur, German sauer (“sour”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sur, French sur (“sour”), Faroese súrur (“sour”), Icelandic súr (“sour, bitter”),
Polish ser (“cheese”),
Czech sýr (“cheese”),
Slovak syr (“cheese”),
Russian сырой (syroj, “raw”),
Ukrainian сири́й (syrýj, “raw”),
Old Church Slavonic сꙑръ (syrŭ, “moist, cheese”).

Antonyms

sweet, sweeten

Scrabble Score: 4

sour: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
sour: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
sour: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 5

sour: valid Words With Friends Word