▪ I. saucy, a.1
(ˈsɔːsɪ)
Forms: 6 sausy, -ie, Sc. sawsy, 6–7 sawsie, 6–8 sawcy(e, -ie, 8 vulgar saasy, 6– saucy.
[f. sauce n. + -y1.]
† 1. Flavoured with or pertaining to sauce; resembling sauce; savoury. Obs.
| 1508 Dunbar Flyting 191 Quhair thow lyis sawsy in saphron, bak and syd. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xxv. 279 Delicate, and of a sawcie and delicious taste. 1630 J. Taylor (Water-P.) Gt. Eater Kent Wks. i. 146/1 Nor in all his life time the queasinesse of his stomacke needed any sawcy spurre or switch of sowre Veriuice or acute Vineger. |
| fig. allusively. 1552 Latimer Serm. Lincolnsh. i. (1562) 65 But he that wilbe a christen man, that intendeth to come to heauen, must be a sausye felow: he must be well poudered with the sause of affliction and tribulation. |
2. a. Of persons, their dispositions, actions, or language: Insolent towards superiors; presumptuous. Now chiefly colloq. with milder sense, applied to children and servants: Impertinent, rude, ‘cheeky’.
In the 16th c. often saucy (and) malapert, whence More's sauce malapert. † saucy Jack: an impertinent fellow.
| 1530 Palsgr. 323/1 Saucy to perte or homlye, malapert. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke v. 17–20 What a more shamelesse or sawcie pranke coulde there bee, then to take downe the tyling of an other mannes house, and to toumble in such a lothely syght before such a presence to behold it? 1553 Respublica i. iii. 26 Whoo buzzeth in myne eare so? what? ye sawecye Iacke? 1556 Olde Antichrist 24 Symon magus was so sawcye as to name him selfe the mightie power of God. 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. v. v, That saucie stubborne generation, the Iewes. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 313, I wil speake to him like a sawcie Lacky, and vnder that habit play the knaue with him. 1602 W. Fulbecke 1st Pt. Parall. Introd. 7 Comparisons wer of al things most saucy and malepert. 1617 Moryson Itin. ii. 70 My Lady Rich her letter he termed an insolent saucy malapert action. 1620 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster ii. i, My father would preferre the boyes he kept to greater men then he, but did it not till they were too sawcy for himselfe. 1646 H. Markham Let. in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 2, I shall not trouble your Ladyship with her scandelous and sawcy language of my Lord or yourselfe. 1663 Dryden Wild Gallant iv. i, Sawcy Rascal, to disturb my Meditations. 1693 Congreve Old Bach. iv. xii, Base Man! Was it not enough to affront me with your sawcy Passion? a 1721 Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.) Jul. C. i. ii. Wks. 1723 I. 217 Betters! thou sawcy Citizen, be silent. 1791 Boswell Johnson an. 1773, 29 Sept., A clergyman's widow..having acquired great influence over the father, was saucy to the son. 1821–2 Shelley Chas. 1st ii. 35 Mark you what spirit sits in St. John's eyes? Methinks it is too saucy for this presence. 1843 Syd. Smith in Mem. (1855) II. 499, I was sorry to be forced to give ― such a beating, but he was very saucy and deserved it. 1879 Dixon Windsor II. xvi. 171 Alen{cced}on had a saucy tongue. 1888 Burgon Lives 12 Good Men II. v. 16 He forwarded a copy of his letter to Lord John, who sent him in reply a saucy comment on it. |
b. occas. with the notion: Wanton, lascivious.
In Shakes. as a term of serious condemnation; in modern examples only playful and in coy use: ‘daring’, smutty, suggestive.
| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. iv. 45 To remit Their sawcie sweetnes, that do coyne heauens Image In stamps that are forbid. 1611 ― Cymb. i. vi. 151 If he shall thinke it fit, A sawcy Stranger in his Court, to Mart As in a Romish Stew. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus xvi. 3 You that lightly a saucy verse resenting, Misconceit me. 1962 Times 13 Apr. 18/4 The comedy is all reduced to relentlessly ‘saucy’ sniggering farce. 1975 Radio Times 3 Apr. 17 George Formby..died 15 years ago. His songs, especially the saucy ones, have passed into legend. 1977 News of World 17 Apr. 9/7 He [sc. Mozart] won a reputation as a bed-hopping gambler and earned a fortune... Experts unearthed the saucy truth when they studied the great man's personal accounts. |
c. Now often used in mock dispraise, as an endearing or admiring epithet implying piquancy or sprightliness.
| 1710 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 21 Sept., Here must I begin another letter, on a whole sheet, for fear sawcy little MD should be angry. 1742 Richardson Pamela (1785) IV. xxxiii. 190 Never was a saucier dear Girl, than you, in your Maiden Days. 1838 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) III. 93, I love to see my tame pigeons feed at the window, and the saucy hen tap the glass, if the casement be shut. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. App. 362 Some saucy puppies on their hind legs. 1888 Henley Bk. Verses 155 She has..the sauciest nose. 1904 A. Griffiths 50 Yrs. Publ. Serv. 17 They were old brother officers in the Saucy Sixth. |
d. Applied to a ship or boat: † (a) In early use (with figurative context): Presumptuous, rashly-venturing (obs.). (b) In modern use (cf. 2 d): Smart, stylish.
| c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. lxxx, My sawsie barke (inferior farre to his) On your broad maine doth wilfully appeare. 1606 ― Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 42 Where's then the sawcy Boate, Whose weake vntimber'd sides but euen now Co-riual'd Greatnesse? 1652 Crashaw Alexias Wks. (1904) 287 Seas had not bin rebuk't by sawcy oares. 1828 Sporting Mag. XXI. 341 Several East India ships..with such saucy rigging that would have made the Yachters raving in envy. 1873 G. C. Davies Mount. & Mere xix. 173 Slow moving trawlers and saucy little crab boats. 1878 W. C. Bennett Sea Songs 78 Tight and saucy—tight and saucy, Trim's the ship we hail from. |
† e. quasi-adv. = saucily.
| 1598 Queen Elizabeth tr. Plutarch x. 13 Suche vers as Archi-Lochus againe women Lewdely and ful sawsy made. 1713 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 21 Feb, Methinks I writ a little saucy last night. |
† 3. Dainty, fastidious, ‘spoilt’. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 214 Where cocking Dads make sawsie lads. 1611 Cotgr., Friand..saucie, lickorous, daintie⁓mouthed, sweet-toothed. 1676 Hale Contempl. ii. 174 Thou hast a sawcy and a luxurious Palate. 1886 Cheshire Gloss., Saucy, dainty as to food. 1904 A. Bennett Great Man vi. 50 He ate a little of the lean, leaving a wasteful margin of lean round the fat..; then he unobtrusively laid down his knife and fork. ‘Come, Henry,’ said Aunt Annie, ‘don't leave a saucy plate.’ |
4. Scornful, disdainful. Now dial.
| 1716 Gay Trivia i. 117 In sawcy State the griping Broker sits. a 1774 Fergusson Poems (1807) 300 Sin Merlin laid Auld Reikie's causey, And made her o' his wark right saucy. 1786 Burns Twa Dogs 91 They gang as saucy by poor folk As I wad by a stinkan brock. 1867 Ellen Johnston Poems 180 Had ye drest like a clark, aye in a clean sark, I vow I wad ne'er been sae saucy. |
5. Comb., as saucy-looking adj.; † saucy-box = saucebox; saucy-face, an impertinent person.
| 1684 Otway Atheist iii. i, Robb'd, Sir! No, Mr. Saucy⁓face. 1711 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 21 Nov., Well, but I won't answer your letter now, sirrah saucyboxes, no, no; not yet. 1740 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 92 Come, saucy-face, give me another glass of wine. 1748 ― Clarissa IV. xxi. 96 For why? The dear saucy-face knows not how to help herself. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair li, Becky laughed, gay, and saucy-looking. |
▪ II. † ˈsaucy, a.2 Obs.
[f. sauce- in saucefleme + -y.]
Affected by saucefleme.
| 1600 Surflet Country Farm iii. lxxiii. 604 This virgins milke is good to heale..saucie and red faces [orig. goutte roses & taches rouges du visage]. 1623 Markham Eng. Housew. (ed. 2) 20 For a pympled or a red-saucy face. |
▪ III. saucy
see sassy n.