KJV Dictionary Definition: sour

sour

SOUR, a.

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, n. An acid substance.

SOUR, v.t.

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, v.i.

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.

soured

SOUR'ED, pp. Made sour; made peevish.

souring

SOUR'ING, ppr. Making acid; becoming sour; making peevish.

SOUR'ING, n. That which makes acid.

sourness

SOUR'NESS, n.

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.

Definitions from Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.
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