▪ I. saucer, n.
(ˈsɔːsə(r))
Forms: 4–6 sawser(e, 4–8 sawcer(e, 5 sawsesere, sauscyre, sawssor, sowcer, 5–6 salser, Sc. salsar, 5, 7 sausser, 6 sawsser, sawecere, sasser, salcer, Sc. sasar, 6–7 saser, 4– saucer.
[a. OF. saussier masc., saussiere fem. (mod.F. only saucière) vessel for holding sauce, f. sauce sauce n. Cf. Sp. salsera, Pg. salseira, It. salsiera, med.L. salsārium.]
† 1. A receptacle, usually of metal, for holding the condiments at a meal; a dish or deep plate in which salt or sauces were placed upon the table.
| 13.. Coer de L. 1489 Now, styward, I warne the, Bye us vessel gret plenté, Dysschys, cuppys, and sawsers. c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 503 Dobler saucer of lynde. 14.. Metr. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 626/9 Sawsesere, salsarium. 1434 in E.E. Wills (1882) 101, ij sauseres of peautre. c 1481 Caxton Dialogues 7/31 Now must ye haue Platers of tyn, Disshes, saussers, Sallyers, trenchours. 1488 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 82 Item, tuelf salsaris. 1504 in Bury Wills (Camden) 97 Item I wyll that myn executo{supr}s shall geve to xxti maydens..xij pecys of pewtyr, that ys to sey, iiij platers, iiij dysshys, and iiij sawssers. 1538 in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden) 272 Item, iij. platters, a dysshe, and a sawecere xij{supd}. 1541 Aberdeen Reg. (1844) I. 176 Ane playt, a dische, a salsar, a chandlar of brace. 1588 D. Archdeacon tr. True Discourse Army K. Spain 69 Dishes, Cuppes, Sassers. 1600 Hakluyt Voy. III. 338 The women, going to dance, did weare about their girdles plates of golde as broad as a sawcer. 1674 T. P. etc. Eng. & Fr. Cook 31 And send with the serving it up some Saucers of Green⁓sauce. 1728–42 Bailey, Saucer, a little Dish to hold Sauce. |
2. a. Any small shallow dish or deep plate of circular shape. Now commonly felt as an extended use of sense 3.
Somewhat specialized applications are:
† a receptacle for the blood in blood-letting (
obs.); a small earthenware plate on which cake water-colours are rubbed in water; a shallow vessel placed under a flower-pot, sometimes holding water to be drawn up through a hole in the bottom of the pot.
| 1607 B. Barnes Divils Charter Prol., Presently the Pro⁓notary strippeth vp Alexanders sleeue and letteth his arme bloud in a saucer. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 254 Blood..caked as it is in a Saser after blood-letting. 1630 Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 184 Two litle plates or sawcers for carying and setting the bread on itt, at the tyme of the Communion. 1665 in Phil. Trans. I. 118 The last Blood was received in a Sawcer. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life iii. xxxvi, Rubbing Indian ink, or cake colours, in a very smooth saucer. 1822 Loudon Encycl. Gard. 328 The Flower Pot-Saucer is a flat, circular vessel, with a rim from one to two inches high. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxvi, A quantity of orange marmalade spread out in a little cut-glass saucer. 1856 Glenny Gard. Every-d. Bk. 259/1 The pot had feet to keep the drain hole above the water in a common saucer, and the saucers for common pots had a flat rim inside. |
| transf. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 173 The Armenians..in stead of musicall instruments, have Sawcers of brasse (which they strike against one another) set about with gingles. |
b. pink saucer: see
pink a.
1 C. c.
| 1855 Piesse Art of Perfumery 222 Pink Saucers. |
c. = flying saucer s.v. flying vbl. n. 3. Also
attrib.| [1878 Denison (Texas) Daily News 25 Jan., in C. & J. Lorenzen UFOs (1969) i. 10 When directly over him it [sc. a flying object] was about the size of a large saucer and was evidently at a great height.] 1947 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 5 July 1/4 Describing what they saw as flat, translucent plates 12 to 15 inches in diameter, several Port Huron, Mich., residents reported seeing the ‘saucers’. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 May 274/3 The author declares he was arrested while camping out in a fertile saucer district and narrowly escaped a mental examination court. It all affords a good occasion to re-tell certain saucer stories the author inquired into. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. V. 363/2 Light reflections from material objects account for most reports of saucers. 1978 D. A. J. Seargent UFO's vi. 122 People frequently shy away from traditional religions and look for salvation from the ‘saucers’. |
3. A small round shallow vessel, usually with concave sides and flat at the bottom, used for supporting a cup (
esp. a tea or coffee cup), and catching any liquid that may be spilled from it.
| c 1702 C. Fiennes Journeys (1947) iii. v. 177, I went to this Newcastle in Staffordshire to see the makeing the fine tea-potts cups and saucers of the fine red earth. 1753 Richardson Grandison (1781) I. ix. 49 Down went his cup and sawcer. 1776 Wilkes in Boswell Johnson (1791) II. 86 If a poet had to speak of Queen Caroline drinking tea, he must endeavour to avoid the vulgarity of cups and saucers. 1840 Marryat Poor Jack xvi, Don't pour your tea in your saucer—that's vulgar! 1861 J. R. Greene Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent. 66 The constrictions deepen until the Strobila becomes not unlike a pile of cups or saucers. |
4. In similative phrases.
Cf. saucer eye. So (
slang), an eye. Also
attrib. This use
orig. belonged to sense 1.
Cf. AF. ‘les oyls granz com deus saucers’,
Boeve de Haumtone 1760 (13th c.).
| 13.. Seuyn Sag. (W.) 2784 With eghen that war ful bright and clere, And brade, ilkone, als a sawsere. 1598 Bp. Hall Sat. vi. i. G 8, Her eyes like siluer saucers fayre beset With shining Amber and with shady Iet. 1663 Dryden Wild Gallant v. i, We met three or four hugeous ugly Devils, with Eyes like Sawcers. 1679 Hist. Jetzer 3 The eyes of these Dogs as Jetzer thought,..were bigger than Saucers. 1789 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Ode to Devil 93 Wks. 1816 II. 23, I thought That thou a pair of horns hadst got, With eyes like saucers staring! 1864 M. Lemon Jest Bk. 185, I always know when he has been in his cups by the state of his saucers. 1876 tr. Andersen's Fairy Tales 128 There sat the dog with eyes as big as saucers, glaring at him. 1958 Spectator 22 Aug. 246/2 Nor were they wasting any saucer stares on National Savings or ‘Taking up a Career in the Midland Bank’. |
5. † a. Phys. = cotyledon 1,
acetabulum 2 d.
| 1683 Snape Anat. Horse i. xxviii. (1686) 62 Any of those Glandules that are..called Cotyledons or Sawcers. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. i. 2 Slimy humours which loosen the acetabula (or saucers) of the womb. |
b. Bot. Any part of a plant resembling a saucer, as the involucre of
Euphorbiaceæ, and the tubercle of lichens in which the seeds are imbedded.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xxix. 356 The flowers are yellow and grow out of litle dishes or sawsers. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 370 The rising particle, which is destined to form a concave saucer, becomes hollow and green at the top,..the saucer becomes larger and more and more open... At length it becomes a perfect saucer, either sitting, or supported on a short foot. 1862 Darwin Orchids vi. 277 In Dendrobium chrysanthum the nectary consists of a shallow saucer. |
6. Mech. In various uses: see
quots.| 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict., Sawcers, those round Pieces of Iron fixt on the Sawcer-hooks, on which the Leathern Suckers are put in Chain-Pumps. 1750 T. R. Blanckley Nav. Expositor, Saucers, are round thick Pieces of Iron, on which the Spindle of the Capstons work. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 8 Saucer, a bolt with a flat head. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Saucer,..a socket of iron let into a wooden stock or standard..to receive the spindle or foot on which the capstan rests and turns round. |
7. attrib. and
Comb. a. = belonging to a saucer, as
saucer-hook (see sense 6);
b. = of the shape of a saucer (sense 3), as
saucer-barrow,
saucer-brooch,
saucer-cap,
saucer-cloud,
saucer-dome,
saucer-eyeball,
saucer-hat,
saucer-head;
saucer bath, a wide shallow bath
usu. kept in a bedroom and used for sponging oneself down;
saucer-buried a., formerly in the southern
U.S., applied to a Black person whose burial was paid for by donations placed in a saucer laid on or near the corpse; hence
saucer-burial;
saucerman, a being imagined or believed to be the pilot or passenger of a flying saucer.
c. parasynthetic, as
saucer-blue,
saucer-headed,
saucer-shaped adjs.; also
saucer-like adj. and
adv.| 1941 Proc. Prehist. Soc. VII. 88 The *saucer-barrow may be defined as a low mound, generally one or two feet high..enclosed in a ditch and outer bank. |
| 1899 Somerville & ‘Ross’ Some Experiences Irish R.M. ii. 38 A conspicuous object outside the door was a *saucer bath full of something that looked like flour. 1927 G. Murray Classical Trad. in Poetry 4 He used a sponge and a tooth-brush and a saucer bath. 1951 C. V. Wedgwood Last of Radicals i. 19 The patriarchal old gentleman, who rose every morning to a cold saucer-bath. |
| 1925 W. de la Mare Miss Jemima 12 She was staring about her..with her *saucer blue eyes. |
| 1912 Archaeologia LXIII. 167 The find included no less than four *saucer brooches, one decorated with the star with incurved sides..and three with spirals. 1965 A. H. Smith in Bessinger & Creed Medieval & Linguistic Stud. 61 The presence of artifacts in the Avon valley cemeteries, like applied, disc, and saucerbrooches..has been interpreted as a mixed culture. |
| 1963 P. Pollack Photography xxvii. 351/1 A picture of a *saucer burial taken in Alabama. |
| 1925 Du B. Heyward Porgy i. 25 It had even become a grievous reproach to have a member of the family a ‘*saucer-buried nigger’. |
| 1885 C. Lowe Bismarck I. 17 He got himself up in the traditional long-boots, velvet jacket, and *saucer cap. |
| 1911 H. S. Walpole Mr. Perrin & Mr. Traill iv. 72 Faint blue skies, dim and shining like clear glass with a hard yellow sun stuck like a tethered balloon between *saucer-clouds. |
| 1895 Westm. Gaz. 7 Oct. 8/2 Work has been begun upon the third *saucer-dome. |
| a 1732 Gay Story of Apparition 19 Wks. 1737 II. 55 Night roaming ghosts, by *saucer eye⁓balls known. |
| 1940 M. Sadleir Fanny by Gaslight i. 30 My own tartan frock..and tiny *saucer hat. 1965 J. Potts Only Good Secretary iv. 68 Her head, topped with its black saucer hat. |
| 1815 Falconer's Dict. Marine (ed. Burney) s.v. Bolt, Those..have commonly small round heads, somewhat flatted, called *saucer heads. |
| Ibid., *Saucer-headed Bolt. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxxvi, A muckle great saucer-headed cutlugged stane, that they ca' Charlies Chuckie. |
| 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 75 This affectation then of great *Sawcer-like eyes is a fancie against the rule of nature. 1861 Reade Cloister & H. xxxviii, On reaching them the rustic rider's eyes opened saucer-like. |
| 1967 Time 4 Aug. 40/2 Barney and Betty Hill..whose ‘abduction’ by *saucermen during an auto trip was described in the fast-selling book [etc.] 1971 New Scientist 30 Sept. 722/1 Visiting saucermen from Mars might well report back to base that all our Gods must be hard of hearing. |
| 1847–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. 213/2 At the bottom of the sac is situated a *saucer-shaped body. 1901 Athenæum 27 July 132/1 The same church has a saucer-shaped paten, 1652. |
▪ II. ˈsaucer, v. [f. the n.] 1. intr. To be saucerlike; to take the shape of a saucer, be as shallow as a saucer.
| 1925 W. de la Mare Broomsticks 112 The immense starry sky that saucered in the wide darkness of the Moor. 1977 Times 19 Nov. 1/6 They prophesy that the rate is now ‘saucering’ and that after a brief dip into single figures it will rise again. |
2. trans. To make saucerlike; to shape (something) like a saucer.
| 1934 Webster, Saucer, v.t. & i. To make or be saucerlike. 1977 Whitaker's Almanack 1978 1058/1 The site has been successfully ‘saucered’ to disguise the bulk and reduce the overall height. |
3. trans. To pour (a liquid) into a saucer,
esp. from a cup.
| 1938 Atlantic Monthly Oct. 552/2 ‘Want a sasser o' sorghum?... The visitor would ‘sasser’ some sorghum. 1944 A. Clarke Coll. Plays (1963) 246 Mind you don't utter A word..Until you have eaten six slices of bread With plenty of butter—and saucered your tay! 1951 H. Giles Harbin's Ridge x. 100 Granny saucered her coffee and blew on it. 1978 New Yorker 9 Jan. 41/3 Have you ever heard the old Texas expression ‘saucered and blowed’?.. If a cowboy's coffee is too hot, he puts some in a saucer and blows on it. A cowboy will say to a friend, ‘Take mine, it's already saucered and blowed.’ Jim needs to get the energy bill saucered and blowed. |