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Entry 12 senses · 4 variants Webster, 1913

Sour

/sou'-ẽr/ · IPA /ˈsaʊɚ/
01 a. Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart.
  1. 1.
    Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart.
    “All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite.” — Bacon.
  2. 2.
    Changed, as by keeping, so as to be acid, rancid, or musty, turned.
  3. 3.
    Disagreeable; unpleasant; hence; cross; crabbed; peevish; morose; as, a man of a sour temper; a sour reply.
    “He was a scholar . . . Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.” — Shak.
  4. 4.
    Afflictive; painful.
  5. 5.
    Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh.
Phrases & compounds
Sour dock — sorrel.
Sour gourd — the gourdlike fruit Adansonia Gregorii, and Adansonia digitata; also, either of the trees bearing this fruit. See Adansonia.
Sour grapes — See under Grape.
Sour gum — See Turelo.
Sour plum — the edible acid fruit of an Australian tree (Owenia venosa); also, the tree itself, which furnished a hard reddish wood used by wheelwrights.
Syn. Acid; sharp; tart; acetous; acetose; harsh; acrimonious; crabbed; currish; peevish.
02 n. A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.
  1. 1.
    A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.
03 v. t. To cause to become sour; to cause to turn from sweet to sour; as, exposure to the air sours many substances.
  1. 1.
    To cause to become sour; to cause to turn from sweet to sour; as, exposure to the air sours many substances.
    “So the sun's heat, with different powers, Ripens the grape, the liquor sours.” — Swift.
  2. 2.
    To make cold and unproductive, as soil.
  3. 3.
    To make unhappy, uneasy, or less agreeable.
    “To sour your happiness I must report, The queen is dead.” — Shak.
  4. 4.
    To cause or permit to become harsh or unkindly.
    “Pride had not sour'd nor wrath debased my heart.” — Harte.
  5. 5.
    To macerate, and render fit for plaster or mortar; as, to sour lime for business purposes.
04 v. i. To become sour; to turn from sweet to sour; as, milk soon sours in hot weather; a kind temper sometimes sours in adversity.
imp. & p. p. Soured; p. pr. & vb. n. Souring
  1. 1.
    To become sour; to turn from sweet to sour; as, milk soon sours in hot weather; a kind temper sometimes sours in adversity.
    “They keep out melancholy from the virtuous, and hinder the hatred of vice from souring into severity.” — Addison.