Meaning of sour In English

• 0 having a sharp, sometimes unpleasant, taste or smell, like a lemon, and not sweet:

  • These plums are a bit sour.

• 1 unfriendly or easily annoyed:

  • Overnight, it seemed, their relationship had turned sour.

  • She gave me a sour look.

• 2 to become sour or to make something become sour:

  • Hot weather sours milk.

  • Milk sours in hot weather.

• 3 to (cause to) become unpleasant or unfriendly:

  • Her whole attitude to life soured as a result of that experience.

  • This incident has soured relations between the two countries.

• 4 a drink made from strong alcohol, lemon, or lime juice, sugar, and ice:

  • a whisky sour

• 5 (esp. of food) having a sharp taste:

  • The four basic tastes are sweet, salty, bitter, and sour.

• 6 unfriendly or unpleasant in manner or attitude:

  • The team’s perfect season went/turned sour after they lost their second straight game.

• 7 to become sour:

  • I’m afraid the milk has soured.

• 8 to become bad or unpleasant, or cause someone to feel bad or unhappy:

  • [ I ] When the economy soured, donations to the charity dried up.

• 9 to become, or cause to become, less pleasant, friendly, or successful:

  • Meeting clients unexpectedly can sour a relationship.

  • Loans are souring, as bankruptcies and the bad debts they leave behind keep mounting.

  • a market/economy sours Companies and families spend less on travel when the economy sours.

• 10 no longer successful or pleasant:

  • sour economy/market The economic slump was caused primarily by a sour housing market.

• 11 to fail or become unpleasant:

  • Year-end is traditionally when many investors decide whether to sell stocks that have gone sour.