Found 2 items, similar to Sour grapes.
English → English (WordNet)
Definition: sour grapes
sour grapes
n : disparagement of something that is unattainable
English → English (gcide)
Definition: Sour grapes
Grape
\Grape\, n. [OF. grape, crape, bunch or cluster of grapes,
F. grappe, akin to F. grappin grapnel, hook; fr. OHG. chrapfo
hook, G. krapfen, akin to E. cramp. The sense seems to have
come from the idea of clutching. Cf.
Agraffe,
Cramp,
Grapnel,
Grapple.]
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.
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2. (Bot.) The plant which bears this fruit; the grapevine.
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3. (Man.) A mangy tumor on the leg of a horse.
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4. (Mil.) Grapeshot.
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Grape borer. (Zo["o]l.) See
Vine borer.
Grape curculio (Zo["o]l.), a minute black weevil
(
Craponius in[ae]qualis) 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 (Zo["o]l.), a small yellow and red hemipterous
insect, often very injurious to the leaves of the
grapevine.
Grape moth (Zo["o]l.), 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 (Zo["o]l.), the larva of the grape moth.
Sour grapes, things which persons affect to despise because
they can not possess them; -- in allusion to [AE]sop's
fable of the fox and the grapes.
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Sour
\Sour\, a. [Compar.
Sourer; superl.
Sourest.] [OE.
sour, sur, AS. s?r; akin to D. zuur, G. sauer, OHG. s?r,
Icel. s?rr, Sw. sur, Dan. suur, Lith. suras salt, Russ.
surovui harsh, rough. Cf.
Sorrel, the plant.]
1. Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and
the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart.
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All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite.
--Bacon.
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2. Changed, as by keeping, so as to be acid, rancid, or
musty, turned.
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3. Disagreeable; unpleasant; hence; cross; crabbed; peevish;
morose; as, a man of a sour temper; a sour reply.
“A sour
countenance.” --Swift.
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He was a scholar . . .
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,
But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.
--Shak.
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4. Afflictive; painful.
“Sour adversity.” --Shak.
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5. Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh.
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Sour dock (Bot.), sorrel.
Sour gourd (Bot.), the gourdlike fruit
Adansonia Gregorii
, and
A. 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.
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Syn: Acid; sharp; tart; acetous; acetose; harsh; acrimonious;
crabbed; currish; peevish.
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