: seasoned with a sauce containing sugar and vinegar or lemon juice
sweet-and-sour shrimp

Examples of sweet-and-sour in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The fight started between childhood friends over a packet of sweet-and-sour sauce outside a McDonald’s. Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2024 Served with its head and tail attached, the scored fish arrives in a glossy orange sweet-and-sour sauce that improves on the usual duet with its infusion of ginger, garlic and scallion. Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, 24 Jan. 2024 Outside the McDonald’s, a fight erupted over a packet of sweet-and-sour sauce, police said, and Naima was stabbed to death by one of her companions, a 16-year-old girl who later pleaded as a juvenile to voluntary manslaughter. Peter Hermann, Washington Post, 1 Jan. 2024 Although the instrument has an integral role in the orchestral ecosystem—every ensemble tunes to its piercing A—the sweet-and-sour tang of its sound limits its popularity as a solo voice, particularly in comparison with the mellifluousness of the flute or the clarinet. Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023 Others say carryouts in Washington, D.C., created it, a sort of spicy riff on sweet-and-sour sauce. Tim Carman, Washington Post, 12 Oct. 2023 Here’s a recipe for sweet-and-sour pork tenderloin. Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2023 But his script is typically Irish, imbued with playful jabs and crude humor, and Hewson’s forthright and foul-mouthed performance proves to be the perfect hit of sweet-and-sour acid to offset what could have been impossibly treacly. Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 23 Sep. 2023 Take sweet-and-sour pork, which starts with a cure of aromatics and cooks to tenderness overnight. Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, 28 Apr. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sweet-and-sour.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1928, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sweet-and-sour was in 1928

Dictionary Entries Near sweet-and-sour

Cite this Entry

“Sweet-and-sour.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sweet-and-sour. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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