verjuice

plural verjuices · alternative verjus

1. uncountableusuallyA very acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes, crab-apples, or other sour fruit.

   Alfred pulled a face as of one that drinketh verjuice unawares; but let it pass: hypercriticism was not his cue just then.

   1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash

   2 more examples

   In this inſtance, there is (vpon the by) to be noted the Percolation, or Suing of the Veriuyce thorow the VVood; So as it ſeemeth, it muſt be firſt in a kinde of Vapour, before it paſſe.

   1631, Francis [Bacon], “I. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, paragraph 79, page 25

   She looked sour as verjuice when my mother and Emily entered, and gave them to understand that ‘she wasn’t used to no strangers in her school, and didn’t want ’em.’

   1886, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Chantry House

present singular third person verjuices · participle present verjuicing · participle past verjuiced · past verjuiced · alternative verjus

1. transitiveTo render something sour; to embitter.

   There are few names to which a jingle or a joke cannot be fitted—witness, Twining, banker and tea-dealer: / ‘Twining would be whining / Were’t not for his tea;’ / and the ex-Lord Mayor, Sir John Key, where the inherent rhyme to ‘donkey’ verjuiced the baronetcy.

   1892, W[illiam] G[eorge] Thorpe, “Early Life and School Days”, in The Still Life of the Middle Temple with Some of Its Table Talk Preceded by Fifty Years’ Reminiscences, London: Richard Bentley and Son […], page 3