sauce
n. C / Un. a thick liquid served with food to add flavor or moisture. You use it to make a dish taste better or to keep it from being too dry.
n. a liquid or semi-solid substance served with food to add moistness, flavor, or visual appeal. Often used metaphorically in informal contexts to refer to something that adds style or confidence.
I like to put tomato sauce on my pasta.
The chef spent hours reducing the red wine sauce to ensure it had a rich, concentrated flavor for the steak.
While the base ingredients of the dish are simple, the complexity of the peppercorn sauce provides a necessary contrast that elevates the entire meal.
PIE word *séh₂ls 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 (“to salt”), from sal. Doublet of salsa. For the meaning development compare Ancient Greek ἥδυσμα (hḗdusma) ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (whence also English sweet).
Uncountable when referring to the substance in general; countable when referring to specific varieties or servings.