What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Sour vs Improve - What's the difference?

sour | improve |

As verbs the difference between sour and improve

is that sour is (label) to make sour while improve is (lb) to make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).

As an adjective sour

is having an acidic, sharp or tangy taste.

As a noun sour

is the sensation of a sour taste.

sour

English

Alternative forms

* (obsolete) sowr

Adjective

(er)
  • Having an acidic, sharp or tangy taste.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite.
  • Made rancid by fermentation, etc.
  • (rfex)
  • Tasting or smelling rancid.
  • (rfex)
  • Peevish or bad-tempered.
  • * Shakespeare
  • He was a scholar / Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, / But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.
  • (of soil) Excessively acidic and thus infertile.
  • (of petroleum) Containing excess sulfur.
  • (rfex)
  • Unfortunate or unfavorable.
  • * Shakespeare
  • sour adversity
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Phil Dawkes , title=Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The result may not quite give the Wearsiders a sweet ending to what has been a sour week, following allegations of sexual assault and drug possession against defender Titus Bramble, but it does at least demonstrate that their spirit remains strong in the face of adversity.}}

    Noun

  • The sensation of a sour taste.
  • (rfex)
  • A drink made with whiskey, lemon or lime juice and sugar.
  • (rfex)
  • (label) Any cocktail containing lemon or lime juice.
  • A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.
  • (Edmund Spenser)

    Derived terms

    * laundry sour

    Verb

  • (label) To make sour.
  • (label) To become sour.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • So the sun's heat, with different powers, / Ripens the grape, the liquor sours .
  • (label) To make disenchanted.
  • * Shakespeare
  • To sour your happiness I must report, / The queen is dead.
  • (label) To become disenchanted.
  • (label) To make (soil) cold and unproductive.
  • (Mortimer)
  • To macerate (lime) and render it fit for plaster or mortar.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    improve

    English

    Alternative forms

    * emprove (obsolete)

    Verb

    (improv)
  • (lb) To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).
  • :
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • (lb) To become better.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:“My Continental prominence is improving ,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
  • (lb) To disprove or make void; to refute.
  • *(William Tyndale) (1494-1536)
  • *:Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another cannot improve .
  • (lb) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
  • :
  • :(Chapman)
  • *(William Tyndale) (1494-1536)
  • *:When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing.
  • (lb) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
  • :
  • *(Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)
  • *:We shall especially honour God by improving diligently the talents which God hath committed to us.
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • *:a hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved
  • *(William Blackstone) (1723-1780)
  • *:The court seldom fails to improve the opportunity.
  • *(Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)
  • *:How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour.
  • *(George Washington) (1732-1799)
  • *:True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion.
  • Synonyms

    * (to make something better) ameliorate, better, batten, enhance * See also

    Antonyms

    * (to make something worse) deteriorate, worsen * (to become worse) deteriorate, worsen

    Derived terms

    * improvement