sauce

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   add zest or flavor to, make more interesting

   sauce the roast

2. 2
   noun

   A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.

   apple sauce; mint sauce

3. 3
   noun

   Tomato sauce (similar to US tomato ketchup), as in

   [meat] pie and [tomato] sauce

4. 4
   noun

   Alcohol, booze.

   Maybe you should lay off the sauce.

5. 5
   noun

   Vitality; capability or talent.

   It's over for that guy. He lost the sauce.

6. 6
   noun

   Cheek; impertinence; backtalk; sass.

   "See here, Captain!" He planted himself squarely in front of Faramir, his hands on his hips, and a look on his face as if he was addressing a young hobbit who had offered him what he called "sauce" when questioned about visiting the orchard.

7. 7
   noun

   Vegetables.

   I wanted cabbage or potaters, or most any sort o' garden sarse [...]

8. 8
   noun

   Any garden vegetables eaten with meat.

   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.

Etymology

PIE word *sḗh₂l From Middle English sauce, from Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, noun use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”), past participle of saliō (“to salt”), from sal. Doublet of salsa. For the meaning development compare Ancient Greek ἥδυσμα (hḗdusma) ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (whence also English sweet).