King James Bible Dictionary

SOUR, adjective

1. Acid; having a pungent taste; sharp to the taste; tart; as, vinegar is sour; sour cider; sour beer.

2. Acid and austere or astringent; as, sunripe fruits are often sour

3. Harsh of temper; crabbed; peevish; austere; morose; as a man of a sour temper.

4. Afflictive; as sour adversities. [Not in use.]

5. Expressing discontent or peevishness. He never uttered a sour word. The lord treasurer often looked on me with a sour countenance.

6. Harsh to the feelings; cold and damp; as sour weather.

7. Rancid; musty.

8. Turned, as milk; coagulated.

SOUR, noun An acid substance.

SOUR, verb transitive

1. To make acid; to cause to have a sharp taste. So the sun's heat, with different pow'rs, ripens the grape, the liquor sours.

2. To make harsh, cold or unkindly. Tufts of grass sour land.

3. To make harsh in temper; to make cross, crabbed, peevish or discontented. Misfortunes often sour'd, nor wrath debas'd my heart.

4. To make uneasy or less agreeable. Hail, great king! To sour your happiness I must report the queen is dead.

5. In rural economy, to macerate, as lime, and render fir for plaster or mortar.

SOUR, verb intransitive

1. To become acid; to acquire the quality of tartness or pungency to the taste. Cider sours rapidly in the rays of the sun. When food sours in the stomach, it is evidence of imperfect digestion.

2. TO become peevish or crabbed. They hinder the hatred of vice from souring into severity.

SOURCE, noun [Latin surgo.]

1. Properly, the spring or fountain from which a stream of water proceeds, or any collection of water within the earth or upon its surface, in which a stream originates. This is called also the head of the stream. We call the water of a spring, where it issues from the earth, the source of the stream or rivulet proceeding form it. We say also that springs have their sources in subterranean ponds, lakes or collections of water. We say also that a large river has is source in a lake. For example, the St. Lawrence has its source in the great lakes of America.

2. First cause; original; that which gives rise to any thing. Thus ambition, the love of power and of fame, have been the sources of half the calamities of nations. Intemperance is the source of innumerable evils to individuals.

3. The first producer; he or that which originates; as Greece the source of arts.

SOURDET, noun The little pipe of a trumpet.

SOUR'-DOCK, noun Sorrel, so called.

SOUR'ED, participle passive Made sour; made peevish.

SOUR'-GOURD, noun A plant of the genus Adansonia.

SOUR'ING, participle present tense Making acid; becoming sour; making peevish.

SOUR'ING, noun That which makes acid.

SOUR'ISH, adjective Somewhat sour; moderately acid; as sourish fruit; a sourish taste.

SOUR'LY, adverb

1. With acidity.

2. With peevishness; with acrimony. The stern Athenian prince the sourly smil'd.

3. Discontentedly.

SOUR'NESS, noun

1. Acidity; sharpness to the taste; tartness; as the sourness of vinegar or of fruit. sourness being one of those simple ideas which one cannot describe.

2. Asperity; harshness of temper. Take care that no sourness and moroseness mingle with our seriousness of mind.

SOUR'-SOP, noun A plant, the annona muricata. The custard apple.