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sass. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
sass, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
sass in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Variant of sauce.
Pronunciation
Noun
sass (uncountable)
- (US) Backtalk, cheek, sarcasm.
1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter I, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 23:Say—if you give me much more of your sass I'll take and bounce a rock off'n your head.
- (archaic) Vegetables used in making sauces.
- A subgenre of screamo music.
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
sass (third-person singular simple present sasses, present participle sassing, simple past and past participle sassed)
- (intransitive, US, informal) To talk, to talk back.
1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXI, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) , London: Chatto & Windus, , →OCLC, page 316:The duke he begun to abuse him for an old fool, and the king begun to sass back; and the minute they was fairly at it, I lit out, and shook the reefs out of my hind legs, and spun down the river road like a deer—for I see our chance; and I made up my mind that it would be a long day before they ever see me and Jim again.
1894, Mark Twain, chapter 2, in Tom Sawyer Abroad:“But, good land! what did he want to sass back for? You see, it couldn’t do him no good, and it was just nuts for them.”
- (transitive, US, informal) To speak insolently to.
Don’t sass your teachers!
1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon:“This isn’t any of your business, Ilse Burnley,” muttered Jennie, sullenly.
“Oh, isn’t it? Don’t you sass me, Piggy-eyes.” Ilse walked up to the retreating Jennie and shook a sunburned fist in her face.
Translations
German
Verb
sass
- Switzerland and Liechtenstein standard spelling of saß.