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Sour vs Sure - What's the difference?

sour | sure |

As adjectives the difference between sour and sure

is that sour is having an acidic, sharp or tangy taste while sure is .

As a noun sour

is the sensation of a sour taste.

As a verb sour

is (label) to make sour.

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

    * ----

    sure

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Physically secure and certain, non-failing, reliable.
  • Certain in one's knowledge or belief.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}
  • Certain to act or be a specified way.
  • (obsolete) Free from danger; safe; secure.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Fear not; the forest is not three leagues off; / If we recover that we are sure enough.
  • (obsolete) Betrothed; engaged to marry.
  • * Sir T. More
    • The king was sure to Dame Elizabeth Lucy, and her husband before God.
  • * Brome
    • I presume that you had been sure as fast as faith could bind you, man and wife.

    Synonyms

    * (secure and steadfast) certain, failsafe, reliable * (sense, steadfast in one's knowledge or belief) certain, positive, wis

    Derived terms

    * for sure * surely * sure up (sure)

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Without doubt.
    • Sure he's coming! Why wouldn't he?
    "Did you kill that bear yourself? ?"I sure did!"

    Usage notes

    * Often proscribed in favor of surely. May be informal.

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (rft-sense) Yes, of course.

    • Synonyms

    * certainly, of course, OK, yes

    References

    * 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192830988

    Statistics

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    Anagrams

    * * * English modal adverbs 1000 English basic words ----