Sour a. [Compar. Sourer superl. Sourest.]
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. Changed, as by keeping, so as to be acid, rancid, or musty, turned.
3. Disagreeable; unpleasant; hence; cross; crabbed; peevish; morose; as, a man of a sour temper; a sour reply. “A sour countenance.”
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. Afflictive; painful. “Sour adversity.”
5. Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh.
Sour dock Bot., sorrel.
Sour gourd Bot., 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 Bot. See Turelo.
Sour plum Bot., 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.
sour gourd
n 1: Australian tree having an agreeably acid fruit that
resembles a gourd [syn: cream-of-tartar tree, Adansonia
gregorii]
2: African gourd-like fruit with edible pulp [syn: monkey
bread]
3: acid-tasting Australian gourd-like fruit with a woody rind
and large seeds