sauce

Etymology 1

From Middle English sauce, from Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, noun use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”), past participle of saliō (“I salt”), from sal. Doublet of salsa.

noun

1. A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.
   You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf. 27 October 2015, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, Plum, page 192
   apple sauce; mint sauce
2. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, India) Tomato sauce (similar to US tomato ketchup), as in:
   [meat] pie and [tomato] sauce
3. (slang, usually “the”) Alcohol, booze.
   Maybe you should lay off the sauce.
   I've been pretty much off the sauce during the last week, trying to get Pepper to like me again. (Horace won't drink with me any more.) 1993, Tristan Hawkins, Pepper, London: Flamingo, page 110
4. (bodybuilding) Anabolic steroids.
5. (art) A soft crayon for use in stump drawing or in shading with the stump.
6. (dated) Cheek; impertinence; backtalk; sass.
   "See here, Captain!" He planted himself squarely in front of Faramir, his hands on his hips, and a look on his face as if he was addressing a young hobbit who had offered him what he called "sauce" when questioned about visiting the orchard. 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, volume 2, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., published 1968, page 691
   ‘Well, you know what Matchett’s like! Just about bring herself to talk to me because I’m housemaid, but if the gardener’s boy so much as looks at ’er it’s sauce,’ said Sarah. 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, page 39
7. (US, obsolete slang, 1800s) Vegetables.
   I wanted cabbage or potaters, or most any sort o' garden sarse … 1833, John Neal, The Down-Easters: &c. &c. &c., volume 1, Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 91
   … and all would be well only for a remark of a little boy who, when asked if he will have some more of the sauce, says he "don't want no strawberries pickled in kerosene." 1882, George W. Peck, “Unscrewing the Top of a Fruit Jar”, in Peck's Sunshine
8. (obsolete, UK, US, dialect) Any garden vegetables eaten with meat.
   Roots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers […] they dish up various ways, and find them very delicious sauce to their meats, both roasted and boiled, fresh and salt. 1705, Robert Beverley, The History of Virginia
   The first night of our expedition, we boiled our meat; and I asked the landlady for a little sauce, she told me to go to the garden and take as much cabbage as I pleased, and that, boiled with the meat, was all we could eat. 1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, “Ch. VIII”, in A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier

verb

1. To add sauce to; to season.
2. To cause to relish anything, as if with a sauce; to tickle or gratify, as the palate; to please; to stimulate.
3. To make poignant; to give zest, flavour or interest to; to set off; to vary and render attractive.
4. (colloquial) To treat with bitter, pert, or tart language; to be impudent or saucy to.
5. (slang) To send or hand over.

Etymology 2

noun

1. (Internet slang) Alternative form of source, often used when requesting the source of an image or other posted material.