MEANING
1. To become, or make something become, acid-tasting or unpleasant-smelling.
2. To become, or make feelings, relationships, or circumstances become, less pleasant or friendly.
3. An alcoholic drink made with a spirit, citrus juice, and sugar, often served with ice.
Use it for
describing milk becoming acid-tasting; showing food developing a sharp smell; distinguishing souring from clotting or visible decompositionConnects a change in taste or smell with a distinct emotional deterioration, rather than treating every decline as literal rot. Writing functions: Decay / Deterioration.
Words that belong together
- milk sours
- sour milk
- a sour smell
On the page
The milk had soured in the jug by the window.
A sour smell escaped when she lifted the lid.
Their friendship soured after the inheritance was divided.
The apology left a sour expression on his face.
She ordered a whiskey sour and left it untouched.
Word forms
- Base
- sour
- Past tense
- soured
- Past participle
- soured
- Present participle
- souring
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- sour
- Present continuous
- am/is/are souring
- Present perfect
- have/has soured
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been souring
- Past
- soured
- Past continuous
- was/were souring
- Past perfect
- had soured
- Past perfect continuous
- had been souring
- Future
- will sour
- Future continuous
- will be souring
- Future perfect
- will have soured
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been souring
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Verb: sours; soured; soured; souring; transitive or intransitive. Adjective: sour, sourer, sourest, or more/most sour where natural. Cocktail noun: a sour, plural sours. Register: neutral. Commonness: common; cocktail noun is context-specific (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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