See Also: Sour(medicine)
sour(1)(dictionary)
sour(2)(dictionary)
Hot and Sour Zucchini(recipes)
Sour Spirals(recipes)
Hot and Sour Soup(recipes)
sweet-and-sour(dictionary)
sour cream(dictionary)
sour 2, verb(dictionary)
sour 1, adjective(dictionary)

lie(2) (iou) and sour(1) (iou)


lie(2) (iou)



lie noun2. In sense 4 also lye. L17.
[from LIE verb1.]
Manner of lying; direction or position in which something lies; direction and amount of slope or inclination; fig. the position or aspect (of affairs etc.). L17.
lie of the land fig. state of affairs, how matters are tending.
S. Baring-Gould The horizontal lie of the chalk beds.
b. The position of a Golf ball to be struck (freq. with specifying word). Also, the angle of the head of a Golf club when the ball is to be struck. L18.
hanging lie: see HANGING adjective.
Times Pitching cleverly short of the green from an awkward lie.
A mass that lies; a stratum, a layer. E18.
a. Room to lie or take cover. rare. M19.
b. The place of cover of an animal or bird. L19.
A railway siding. Chiefly Scot. M19.
An act or period of lying. Chiefly with adverbs (see below). M19.
b. A long etc. period of resting or lying, esp. in bed. Cf. lie-in below. Chiefly Scot. E20.
Comb.: lie-down colloq. a rest (on a bed etc.); lie-in colloq. (a) = a period or act of lying in bed in the morning after one's usual time for getting up (cf. sense 5 above); (b) a form of protest in which the participants lie down on the ground and refuse to move; lie-up the fact of lying inactive in a place. See also combs. s.v. LIE verb1

sour(1) (iou)



sour adjective, noun, & adverb.
[Old English sur = Old Saxon, Old High German sur (Dutch zuur, German sauer), Old Norse surr, from Germanic.]
A. adjective.
I.
Having a tart or acid taste, as of unripe fruit, lemon, vinegar, etc. Opp. sweet. OE.
E. Hyams No matter how sour and sharp the apples.
b. Of a tree: producing tart or acid fruit. OE.
a. Of Food (esp. milk or bread): acidic as a result of fermentation; bad, fermented. ME.
S. Cloete He ate..maas, the sour thickened milk of the indigenous people.
b. Of a smell, breath, etc.: bad, rancid. ME.
M. Gordon The smell of his sickness..a sour male smell.
a. (Of wood, hay, etc.) green; (of pasture) harsh to the taste, rank. Now dial. L15.
b. Of soil, land, etc.: cold and wet; deficient in lime. M16.
Of petroleum, natural gas, etc.: containing a relatively high proportion of sulphur. Opp. SWEET adjective 3b. E20.
II. fig.
Distasteful, disagreeable; unpleasant. ME.
Videographic The..Center is located in an especially sour part of town.
b. Of weather etc.: cold and wet; inclement. L16.
c. Of Music: out of tune. M20.
Of a person, a person's disposition, etc.: harsh; sullen, morose; discontented, embittered. ME.
V. Alcock In one of those sour, angry moods when you hug your misery to yourself.
Of a comment, facial expression, etc.: indicating or expressing discontent; peevish, cross. LME.
L. M. Montgomery Would you want to..wear a sour look all your life? Times He described the preface as scurrilous, sour and vindictive.
Of an animal: heavy, gross. Chiefly dial. E17.
Phrases: go sour, turn sour (of Food) become sour, go bad; fig. become corrupt. go sour on, turn sour on turn out badly for; turn against.
Special collocations: sourball US = sourpuss below. sour beef US = SAUERBRATEN. sour bread (a) leavened bread; (b) US sourdough bread. sour cherry an acid type of cherry used in Cooking, the fruit of Prunus cerasus; the small bushy tree which bears this fruit. sour cream cream intentionally fermented by the addition of bacteria. sour crop Veterinary Medicine (a) candidiasis of poultry, producing a crop filled with foul-smelling liquid and often thickened and ulcerated; (b) impacted crop. sour crout (now rare or obsolete) = SAUERKRAUT. sour dock (now dial.) sorrel, Rumex acetosa. sour gourd (the fruit of) the baobab, Adansonia digitata, or the related Australian tree A. gregorii. sour grapes: see GRAPE noun 2. sour grass (a) a coarse W. Indian grass, Paspalum conjugatum; (b) S. Afr. the coarse grass of poor nutritional value characteristic of sour veld; (c) any of several sour-tasting plants, esp. sorrel, Rumex acetosa, and various oxalises. sour gum US = black gum s.v. BLACK adjective. sour-mash US (whiskey etc. made from) a mash for brewing or distilling which is acidifed to promote fermentation. sour orange (the fruit of) the Seville orange, Citrus aurantium. sour plum (the fruit of) the emu-apple, Owenia acidula. sourpuss colloq. a peevish or sour-tempered person; a grumbler, a killjoy. sour-sweet adjective & noun (a thing which is) sweet with an admixture or aftertaste of sourness. sour veld S. Afr. veld of sour grass, edible for only a few months of the year. sourwood the sorrel tree, Oxydendrum arboreum.
b. noun.
That which is sour (lit. & fig.); a sour thing, experience, etc. OE.
Shakespeare Rape of Lucrece The sweets we wish for turn to loathed sours.
An acid solution used in bleaching, tanning, etc. M18.
An alcoholic drink, esp. of a specified kind, mixed with lemon-juice or lime-juice. N. Amer. M19.
T. Pynchon Metzger came up with an enormous Thermos of tequila sours.
C. adverb.
Bitterly, dearly; severely. Only in ME.
In a sour manner; crossly, unfavourably. Chiefly in look sour on. Now rare. E16.
sourish adjective LME.
sourly adverb LME.
sourness noun OE.