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Sour grapes   /sˈaʊər greɪps/   Listen
noun
Grape  n.  
1.
(Bot.) A well-known edible berry growing in pendent clusters or bunches on the grapevine. The berries are smooth-skinned, have a juicy pulp, and are cultivated in great quantities for table use and for making wine and raisins.
2.
(Bot.) The plant which bears this fruit; the grapevine.
3.
(Man.) A mangy tumor on the leg of a horse.
4.
(Mil.) Grapeshot.
Grape borer. (Zool.) See Vine borer.
Grape curculio (Zool.), a minute black weevil (Craponius inaequalis) which in the larval state eats the interior of grapes.
Grape flower, or
Grape hyacinth (Bot.), a liliaceous plant (Muscari racemosum) with small blue globular flowers in a dense raceme.
Grape fungus (Bot.), a fungus (Oidium Tuckeri) on grapevines; vine mildew.
Grape hopper (Zool.), a small yellow and red hemipterous insect, often very injurious to the leaves of the grapevine.
Grape moth (Zool.), a small moth (Eudemis botrana), which in the larval state eats the interior of grapes, and often binds them together with silk.
Grape of a cannon, the cascabel or knob at the breech.
Grape sugar. See Glucose.
Grape worm (Zool.), the larva of the grape moth.
Sour grapes, things which persons affect to despise because they can not possess them; in allusion to AEsop's fable of the fox and the grapes.



adjective
Sour  adj.  (compar. sourer; superl. sourest)  
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."
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." "He was a scholar... Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, But to those men that sought him sweet as summer."
4.
Afflictive; painful. "Sour adversity."
5.
Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh.
Sour dock (Bot.), sorrel.
Sour gourd (Bot.), the gourdlike fruit Adansonia Gregorii, and Adansonia 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.
Synonyms: Acid; sharp; tart; acetous; acetose; harsh; acrimonious; crabbed; currish; peevish.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sour grapes" Quotes from Famous Books



... said Pilar. "It isn't what you call sour grapes. Papa could be rich if he liked. We have copper on our land, much copper. Men came and told papa that if he chose to work it he might have one of the best copper ...
— The Car of Destiny • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... cannot be gainsaid," said Mrs. Hill. "Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation," quoted Mrs. McLane slowly. "Do you believe in the truthfulness of God's word?" There was no answer. "You all are willing to admit that the fathers have eaten sour grapes, that the sin of unlawful inter-mixture with the alien is the fault of the men. But can we prove that the taint of lust in the blood of the fathers has come down through the generations to effect the male ...
— Hanover; Or The Persecution of the Lowly - A Story of the Wilmington Massacre. • David Bryant Fulton

... Jiddah, which is the port of Mecca, and our nearest point to it," said the commander. "Though thousands of pilgrims are landed there every year on their way to obey the injunction of Mohammed, there is nothing there to see; and it is not a case of sour grapes." ...
— Asiatic Breezes - Students on The Wing • Oliver Optic

... for firewood occasions these mutilations. If I could waft by a wish the thinnings of Abbotsford here, it would make a little fortune of itself. But then to switch and mutilate my trees!—not for a thousand francs. Ay, but sour grapes, quoth ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott

... exactly; I guess this is the day I try sour grapes. [Goes to door Left,—he turns.] ...
— Her Own Way - A Play in Four Acts • Clyde Fitch



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