Sour (?), a. [Compar.Sourer (?); superl.Sourest.] [OE. sour, sur, AS. s�r; akin to D. zuur, G. sauer, OHG. s�r, Icel. s�rr, Sw. sur, Dan. suur, Lith. suras salt, Russ. surovui harsh, rough. Cf. Sorrel, the plant.] 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.” Swift.
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.” Shak.
5. Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh.
Sour dock(Bot.), sorrel. — Sour gourd(Bot.), the gourdlike fruit Adansonia Gregorii, and A. 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.