▪ I. sauce, n.
(sɔːs)
Forms: 4–5 sawse, Sc. salss, 4–8 sawce, sause, 5 saus, sace, 5–6 Sc. sals(e, 6 saulce, sace, 9 vulgar sarse, saase, sass, 4– sauce. See also souse.
[a. F. sauce (in OF. also sausse) = Pr., Sp., Pg., It. salsa:—popular L. salsa, fem. of salsus salted: see salt a.1 The etymological sense is thus identical with that of salad.]
1. a. Any preparation, usually liquid or soft, and often consisting of several ingredients, intended to be eaten as an appetizing accompaniment to some article of food. † Formerly occas. applied to a condiment of any kind.
Often with qualifying word denoting the predominant ingredient, as bread sauce, egg sauce, mint sauce, parsley sauce, or with qualifying adj., as black sauce, brown sauce, hard sauce, white sauce. † Also (15th c.) in many adopted Fr. terms, as sauce cameline, sauce galantine, sauce gansell, etc.: see Two Cookery-bks. 77 (c 1450) and 108–110 (c 1430). Occas., in the names of sauces taken unchanged from French into English, found with the qualifying word following; in such cases the Fr. pronunc. (sos) may be heard. † Robert sauce [tr. F. sauce Robert], now usu. sauce Robert (sos rɔbɛr): a sauce consisting of chopped onions cooked with butter and seasoned. See also allemande n. 3, Béarnaise, Mornay, soubise 2.
| 1350 Will. Palerne 1882 Þei ete at here ese as þei miȝt þanne, boute salt oþer sauce or any semli drynk. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 823 [Lot's wife] sayde softely to hir self ‘þis vn⁓sauere [MS. vn-fauere] hyne Louez no salt in her sauce’. c 1386 Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 14 Of poynaunt sauce [v.rr. sawce, sause] hir neded neuer a deel. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 52 For grete lordis þou schalt take wyne With safroune to þy sawce ful fyne. c 1450 Holland Howlat 705 Many sawouris salss with sewaris he send. c 1480 Henryson Test. Cress. 421 The swete Meitis, seruit in plaittis clene, With Saipheron sals of ane gude sessoun. 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 109 Otmele j.d. Sasis j.d. Clos and mas j.d. 1558 Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. (1568) 42 Use it at meales in the maner of a saulce. 1573 ‘C. Hollybande’ French Schoole-maister 114 Cut some of these loynes of the hare, drest with a blacke sauce. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. lxxvi. 250 This herbe is also used..in Salades and sawces. 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. i. xxvii, While sugar hires the taste the brain to drown, And bribes of sauce corrupt false appetite. a 1656 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 186 A sharp kind of sowrenesse in sawces is esteemed pleasing and tastfull. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Misc. Tracts (1684) 81 Sawce made of Raisins stamped with Vinegar. 1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. sig. Bb6, To dress Pikes à la Sainte Robert [sic]..make your Sauce Robert in the following manner. Ibid. sig. Dv, Artichokes with white Sauce... Make a Sauce for them with the Yolks of Eggs, a Drop or two of Vinegar, and a little Gravy. 1725 Bradley's Fam. Dict. s.v. Roast-Meats, An old wild Boar must be dress'd..with Pepper and Vinegar, or Robert-Sauce. 1750 W. Ellis Country Housewife's Comp. 246 For Sauce to such a Pudding, they strew a little Sugar over it when out of the oven, and then it becomes so palatable that [etc.]. 1764 E. Moxon Eng. Housew. (ed. 9) 123 To make Sauce for tame Ducks. 1806 J. Simpson Compl. Syst. Cookery 293 Pigs feet au gratin, ears shredded, and sauce robert. 1845 E. Acton Mod. Cookery iv. 116 Bechamel. This is a fine French white sauce, now very much served at good English tables. Ibid. 127 Parsley-green, for colouring Sauces. Ibid. 130 Sauce Robert... Large onions,..butter,..flour... Gravy... Mustard. 1884 Girl's Own Paper May 427/3 Boiled chicken..covered with white sauce. 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., Hard sauce, a creamy sauce of butter and sugar, usually flavoured with vanilla or the like. 1911 Webster, Brown sauce = Espagnole sauce. 1928 S. Lewis Man who knew Coolidge i. 103 A..Plum Pudding..with both hard and soft sauce. 1935 ‘R. Hull’ Keep it Quiet xxix. 279 A brown substance..called generally ‘Sauce Robert’, which disfigures cutlets and suchlike. 1939 A. L. Simon Conc. Encycl. Gastron. I. 29/2 In U.S.A., a Hard Sauce is made with one measure of fresh butter to two of castor sugar... A squeeze of lemon is then added... It is usual, in some States,..to add some Brandy or Rum... In England, a similar sauce is called Brandy Butter or Rum Butter. 1960 Good Housek. Cookery Bk. (rev. ed) 196/1 The foundation of all brown and white sauces in which flour is the thickening agent is the roux, formed by cooking the butter and flour together. For white sauces the butter should be melted, the flour added and the two stirred and cooked together until well incorporated. The liquid should then be added by degrees. 1974 E. McGirr Murderous Journey 90 His man had a certain way with Sauce Robert which gave it an added piquancy. 1981 M. C. Smith Gorky Park iii. 304 She'd brought cartons of spaghetti with meat, clam and white sauces. |
b. In proverbial expressions, as sweet meat will have sour sauce, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and the like.
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 158 Sweete meate will haue soure sauce, to this reason feate, Ioyne this conuersion soure sauce will haue sweete meate. 1581 T. Howell Deuises (1879) 200 Aye me that such soure sauce, false fortune should procure. 1607 Hieron Wks. (1614) I. 20 The sweet meats of wickednes will haue the sowre sauce of wretchednes and misery. 1700 Collier 2nd Def. Short View 37 That that's Sawce for a Goose is Sawce for a Gander. 1845 Disraeli Sybil iii. i, We were holding out for our rights, and that's sauce for any gander. 1900 A. Upward Eben. Lobb 295 It seemed to me as though what was sauce for the insured ought to have been sauce for the annuitant. 1905 Athenæum 5 Aug. 167/1 What is sauce for the verb is surely sauce for the verbal substantive. |
c. transf.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 249 Ete not, Ich hote þe, til hunger þe take, And sende þe sum of his sauce to sauer þe þe betere. 1375 Barbour Bruce iii. 540 Thai soucht [nane othir] sals thar-till Bot appetyt. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 13 b, Houngre & thirste is for all thynges the beste sauce in the worlde. 1555–1634 [see hunger n. 1 c]. 1693 Locke Educ. §13. 13 Flesh once a Day,..without other Sawce than Hunger, is best. |
d. U.S. slang. (See quot.)
| 1919 E. V. Rickenbacker Fighting Flying Circus p. xi, Sauce, petrol or gasoline. |
e. slang (orig. U.S.). Alcoholic liquor; occas., a narcotic drug.
| 1940 J. O'Hara Pal Joey 114 It made him sad and he almost began hitting the sauce. 1953 W. Burroughs Junkie (1972) xiii. 134 The first thing you have to do is cut down on the sauce and build up your health. You look terrible. 1960 Wodehouse Jeeves in Offing xvii. 176 Her first husband,..was..a constant pain in the neck to her till one night he most fortunately walked into the River Thames while under the influence of the sauce and didn't come up for days. 1970 M. Braithwaite Never sleep Three in Bed vi. 66 Which means any occasion when any group of the brothers and sisters..have got into the sauce. 1975 N. Freeling What are Bugles blowing For? xii. 74 Castang found a narcotics squad cop... Patricia was known, but not well. ‘She got off the sauce for nearly a year.’ 1976 W. Trevor Children of Dynmouth v. 114 ‘You often get loonies in joints like that,’ he remarked on the street. ‘They drink the sauce and it softens their brains for them.’ 1978 H. C. Rae Sullivan i. ii. 25 You're not in debt, on the sauce, going gay... I can't blackmail you. |
2. fig. Something which adds piquancy to a word, idea, thought or action. Also in Fr. phr. sauce piquante.
| a 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxvii. 19 Quha maist it servis sall sonast repent: Off quhais subchettis sour is the sals. 1533 More Debell. Salem Wks. 969/2 But this good host of ours..geueth vs thereto one litle messe of sace to it. 1552 [see saucy a.1 1 fig.]. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. State ii. xiii. 183 Sleep it self is a recreation; adde not therefore sauce to sauce. 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables lxxiv. 74 That which we call Raillery, in This Sense, is the very Sawce of Civil Entertainment. 1821 Hazlitt Table-T. Ser. I, Character of Cobbett 121 How fine were the graphical descriptions he sent us from America:..what a fine sauce piquante of contempt they were seasoned with! 1831 Scott Ct. Rob. xiii, What is enticing to other men, must, to interest them, have the piquant sauce of extreme danger. 1907 A. C. Benson Altar Fire 16 Fame is only one of the sauces of life. 1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 206 They are only thorns protecting a fleshy cactus—a sauce piquante poured over a nice juicy steak. |
3. Phrases. a. to serve with the same sauce: to subject to the same kind of usage (as one has suffered, or as has been inflicted on another). Similarly, a sop of the same sauce, to taste of the same sauce.
| 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccccxv. 726 If the flemynges had achyued the prise ouer them, they had bene serued of the same sauce. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 70 They serue them with like sause, requitinge deathe for deathe. 1587 Greene Euphues his Censure Wks. (Grosart) VI. 223 Hee [Cleophanes] thought to giue them a soppe of the same sauce, and to thrust out one wyle with another. 1593 Telltroth's N.Y. Gift (1876) 7, I wil not liue alone in sorrow, but will make thee taste of the same sauce. 1605 Trag. End Sir J. Fites (1860) 24 The other man who was close by him..might wel haue beene served with the same sawce likewise. 1704 J. Pitts Acc. Mohammetans 152 They sent for the French Consul, intending to serve him the same Sause. 1889 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xxxvi, You deserve the same sauce..for..letting that ruffian torment these helpless ladies. |
† b. to have eaten sauce, to have drunk of sauce's cup: to be abusive. Obs.
Cf. sense 6 b, and sauce v. 4 c, d.
| 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 1404 Ye haue eten sauce, I trowe, at the Taylers Hall. a 1529 ― Bouge of Court 72 To be so perte..she sayde she trowed that I had eten sauce; She asked yf euer I dranke of saucys cuppe. |
† c. to pay sauce, to pay dearly; to cost (a person) sauce, to cost him dearly. Obs.
| 1678 J. Phillips tr. Tavernier's Trav. i. IV. viii. 168 This penitence costs the criminal Sawce. 1686 tr. Chardin's Coronat. Solyman 107 All the Court..believ'd 'twould cost his ambition sauce; as indeed it fell out. 1694 Westmacott Script. Herb. 9 We pay Sauce for sophisticated stuff. 1718 Motteux Quix. (1733) II. 116 The Innkeeper..swore..that they should pay him Sauce for the Damage. |
† d. in no sauce: under no possible circumstances, by no persuasion or inducement. Obs.
[Cf. Fr. ‘cela ne vaut rien à quelque sauce qu'on le mette’.]
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 265 b, An haulte courage towarde, and that could in no sauce abyde to bee putte backe. 1550 Latimer Last Serm. bef. Edw. VI (1562) 113 b, And yet I remember I had preached vpon thys Epistle once afore Kyng Henry the .viii. but now I could not frame wyth it, nor it liked me not in no sauce. 1565 T. Stapleton Fortr. Faith 10 The lerned therefore amonge the protestants will in no sauce make papistry so late a matter. |
4. a. Chiefly U.S. Vegetables or fruits, fresh or preserved, taken as part of a meal, or as a relish. Often = salad. See also green sauce.
In U.S. long sauce = beet, carrots, and parsnips; short sauce = potatoes, turnips, onions, pumpkins, etc.
| 1629 Parkinson Parad. title-p., A Kitchen Garden of all manner of herbes,..and fruites, for meate or sause vsed with vs. 1705 Beverly Hist. Virginia iv. xvii. (1722) 253 Roots, herbs, vine-fruits, and Sallad-flowers..they dish up..and find them very delicious Sauce to their Meats. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. iii. vii. (1820) 204 Some buxom country heiress,..deeply skilled in the mystery of making apple sweetmeats, long sauce, and pumpkin pie. 1813 Batchelor Agric. Bedford. 76 (E.D.D.) The potatoe..is also the principal vegetable used for sauce. 1893 F. B. Zincke Wherstead xxvii. 261 Vegetables are, with us [in East Anglia], ‘sauce’. |
b. U.S. A dish of fruit-pulp stewed with sweetening or flavouring.
In recent Dicts.; the examples cited are apple-sauce and cranberry sauce, which as used in England belong to sense 1.
| 1846 Mrs. Kirkland West. Clearings 24 Among custards, cakes, and ‘saase’ or preserves, of different kinds, figured great dishes of lettuce [etc.]. |
5. A solution of salt and other ingredients used in some manufacturing processes. Cf. pickle n.1 3.
So F. sauce: see Littré s.v.
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 617 (Gold) This pickle or sauce, as it is called, takes up..a notable quantity of gold. Ibid. 1255 (Tobacco) Watering each layer [of tobacco]..with a solution of sea salt, of spec. grav. 1·107, called sauce. 1876 J. Dunning Tobacco (Brit. Manuf. Industr.) 16 In other countries liquors or ‘sauces’ (as they are called) are generally employed. |
6. [? Evolved from saucy a.] † a. Vocatively. An impudent person, a ‘saucebox’. Obs. Cf. Jack sauce s.v. Jack n.1 36 and saucebox.
| a 1553 Udall Royster D. iii. iii. (Arb.) 48 Backe sir sauce, let gentlefolkes haue elbowe roome. 1591 Troub. Raigne K. John (1611) 27 Good words sir sauce, your betters are in place. c 1592 Marlowe Jew of Malta iii. (1633) F 2 b, Go to, sirra sauce, is this your question? get ye gon. 1697 Cibber Woman's Wit iii. 40 Why what's that to you, Sawce! |
b. Sauciness, impertinence. colloq. and dial.
| 1835 Marryat Jac. Faithf. ii, He's full of his sauce, sir,—you must forgive it. 1872 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 614/1 Dennis had been in his tantrums..; he'd..given sauce to the monitors. 1897 C. Morley Stud. Board Sch. 217 My husban' wouldn't take none of his sauce. |
7. attrib. and Comb., as sauce-bottle, sauce-bowl, sauce cook, sauce-deviser, sauce-dish, sauce maker, sauce-plate, sauce-tureen; sauce-stained adj.; sauce-garden U.S., a garden in which vegetables are grown for the table; sauce-man U.S., one who deals in vegetables; sauce oyster, a large oyster used in making sauce.
| 1925 Hodkin & Cousen Textbk. Glass Technol. v. 49 Glasses..of the type usually used for ordinary white flint glass, for medical, paste, and *sauce bottles, and for those used in machines with automatic feeding devices. 1973 Country Life 1 Nov. 1313/1 The autumn gathering [of mushrooms] went to make ketchup, put up in old sauce bottles. |
| 1765 J. Wedgwood Let. 2 Mar. (1965) 29, I have sent the Green & Gold *Sauce bowles and stands..in a box. |
| 1908 Daily Chron. 5 Aug. 6/2 A *sauce cook, at the Bath Club. |
| 1884 Tennyson Becket Prol. 52, I know thee..A *sauce-deviser for thy days of fish. |
| 1837 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xii. 103 They vegitate like a lettuce plant in *sarse garden. |
| a 1410 in 1st Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 109/1 All the folks of the *salsemakercrafte..did at their own costs and charges together maintain..the pageant. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. (1568) 22 The succot makers and saucemakers. |
| 1837 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) I. xvi. 249 Behind comes a ‘*sauceman’, driving a wagon full of new potatoes, green ears of corn [etc.]. |
| 1891 Daily News 10 Oct. 5/4 *Sauce oysters are unusually large and excellent. |
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 44 His breath hangs over our *saucestained plates, the green fairy's fang thrusting between his lips. |
| 1772 J. Wedgwood Let. 17 Feb. (1965) 119, I thank you..for the hint respecting the *sauce Terrine. 1776 [see tureen β]. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz, Tales, Mr. W. Tottle ii, On one side of the table two green sauce-tureens, with ladles of the same. 1971 Country Life 1 Apr. 765/2 At the dining table, the classical urn was, of course, readily applied..to the now popular sauce tureen. |
▪ II. sauce, v.
(sɔːs)
Forms: 5–6 sause, sawse, 5–7 sawce, 6 saulce, 5– sauce.
[f. sauce n. Cf. F. saucer.]
1. a. trans. To season, dress, or prepare (food) with sauces or condiments.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 441/2 Sawcyn, salmento. Sawcyn, wythe powder, idem quod Powderyn. c 1450 Douce MS. 55 in Two Cookery Bks. 50 Sauce him withe powdre of pepyr and gyngevere & mustarde vynegre & salt and serve him forth. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. vi. 30 Of a goose with garlicke sauste: so late I eete. 1584 Cogan Haven Health cxxvi. (1636) 125 A..powder, to strow upon..Quinces, or Wardens, or to sauce a hen. 1594 R. Ashley tr. Loys le Roy 15 Eche countrey hauing his peculiar meates, and a seueral kinde of dressing, preparing, sauouring, saulcing, rosting, and boyling them. 1632 tr. Bruel's Prax. Med. 242 His meate may be sawced with iuyce of Pomegranates. 1667 L. Stucley Gospel-Glass xxxii. (1670) 305 Nothing has pleased your squeamish stomachs, but meat so sawced. 1699 Evelyn Acetaria 81 Garcius and others, assure us, that the Indians..universally sauce their Viands with it [Fœtid Assa]. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece i. ii. 152 Sauce them [the cutlets] with Mustard, Butter, Shallot, Vinegar and Gravy. 1883 American VII. 120 However poor the meat it is well sauced. 1973 Jewish Chron. 2 Feb. 19/1 If..I choose to sauce them, then I find the ordinary four-to-a-fish fillets quite suitable. 1975 Times 4 Oct. 12/4 A sole dish..said to be sauced with cream, wine and egg... The pale yellow sauce tasted sour. |
b. In proverbial phrase. (See quots.)
| 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 73 Hunger sauceth every meate. 1641 J. Shute Sarah & Hagar (1649) 136 Saith Saint Basil ‘Fasting..sauceth best the use of meats’. |
† c. transf. To make bitter. Obs.
| 1614 Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. v. i. 10 So to craue water, that it may not be sauced with bitternes. |
2. fig. a. To furnish a pleasing accompaniment to; to make pleasant or agreeable, to reduce the asperity or severity of.
| 1514 Barclay Eglog ii. (1570) B j b, Their disputation Is swetely saused with adulation. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer i. B 4, Other..do..sauce their sorowes with sweetenesse. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 281 Sawce the same with laughter. 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus, Ann. iv. vii. (1622) 99 These continuall causes of sorrow, were sauced with some small contentment. 1621 in Birch Crt. & Times Jas. I (1848) II. 127 This sad news I shall sauce with a little that is more pleasant. 1661 R. L'Estrange State-Divinity Pref. 2 Whoever Sauces not his Earnest with a Tang of Fooling misses his Marque. 1837 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) I. xi. 182 A slice of the densest cloud within his reach, sauced with moonshine. |
† b. To qualify with a mixture of bitterness. Obs.
| c 1510 Barclay Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570) D v, Joy sauced is with payne. 1565 T. Stapleton Fortr. Faith i. v. 25 Caluin..sauceth the swete and true doctrine, with the cancred venim of heresy. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 75 Tyrone writ to the Earle of Ormond, whose Letter he sauced with general complaints against the Earle. 1647 Fuller Wounded Consc. xv. 112 It being just, that the sweetnesse of his corporall pleasure should be sauced with more spirituall sadnesse. 1655 Terry Voy. E. India iii. 120 The Contents there found by such as have lived in those parts, are sour'd and sauc'd with many unpleasing things. |
c. To ‘season’, make piquant.
| 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. xi. 238 When this countrefeicte prophet had saused his secte with these wicked opinions: he gaue them his lawe. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts, O.T. 208 He gave them abundance of food..but withall, hee sauced it with judgement. a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal v. Notes (1673) 80 He endeavour'd to sauce their dishes with his scurrility. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 23 Oct. 3/2 Now it [history] must be sauced and savoured,..lest our sickened appetites refuse to taste the dish. |
¶ 3. An alleged technical term for: To prepare (a capon, a plaice, a tench) for the table. (Cf. quot. 1513.) Now pseudo-arch.
| c 1486 Bk. St. Albans f vij b, A Capoon sawsede. Ibid., A Tenche sawced. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 266 Sauce that capon. Take vp a capon, & lyfte vp the ryght legge and the ryght wynge,..& laye hym in the plater as he sholde flee, & serve your souerayne & knowe well that capons or chekyns ben arayed after one sauce; the chekyn shall be sauced with grene sauce or vergyus. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. iii. 78/1 Sauce that Plaice and Tench,..Sauce that Capon. 1840 H. Ainsworth Tower of London ii. xxxix, In the old terms of his art, he leached the brawn, reared the goose, sauced the capon [etc.]. |
4. In various jocular or colloquial uses. † a. To make (a person) ‘pay sauce’ (see sauce n. 3 c): to charge extortionate prices to. Obs.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. iii. 11 Ile make them pay: Ile sauce them. |
† b. To belabour, flog. Also fig. Obs.
| 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. v. (1601) H 3 b, Oh he hath basted me rarely, sumptiously: but I haue it heare will sause him. a 1693 Aubrey Lives, Dr. Triplet (1898) I. 265 ‘And doe not sawce me openly.’ ‘Yes sir, I'll sawce you openly.’ a 1726 Vanbrugh Journey to London i. (1728) 14 But heavy George and fat Tom are after 'em..; they'll sawce their Jackets for 'em, I'll warrant 'em. |
c. To rebuke smartly. Now only dial.
[Cf. F. ‘saucer quelqu'un, le gronder, le réprimander fortement’ (Littré).]
| 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. v. 69 As fast As she answeres thee with frowning lookes, ile sauce Her with bitter words. 1602 Dekker Satiro-mastix E 3, I wod alwaies haue thee sawce a foole thus. 1882 A. B. Taylor Westmorld. Sk. 5 (E.D.D.) Sheed tell em a lot a lees to git off being sased for spillin t'cofe an stuff. |
d. To speak impertinently to. vulgar. Also transf. Cf. sass v.
| 1862 H. Adams Let. 10 Jan. in N. Longmate Hungry Mills (1978) iv. 61, I found myself this morning sarsed through a whole column of The Times and am laughed at by all England. 1864 Doncaster Chron. 4 Mar., I have never been saucy to Mr. Sykes; I have ‘sauced’ the men who have been working for him. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. vii, Dont sauce me in the wicious pride of your youth. 1868 ‘Holme Lee’ B. Godfrey li. 289 If a chap sauces you.., let him sauce on. 1885 J. K. Jerome On the Stage 117 They bully the slavey (but then the slavey sauces them, so perhaps it is only tit for tat). 1892 B. Potter Jrnl. 6 Oct. (1966) 274 He puts on wrong postage..and will sauce anybody who is unprovided with small change; he wants reporting. 1962 D. Lessing Golden Notebk. ii. 274 He sauced her with his eyes; sitting up broad, solid, pink-cheeked; very sure of himself. |