sweet-and-sour

English

Alternative forms

• sweet and sour

Adjective

sweet-and-sour (comparative more sweet-and-sour, superlative most sweet-and-sour)

1. (cooking) Having both sweet and sour or tart taste.
2. Having both positive and negative traits, or inspiring conflicting good and bad feelings.
   • 1982, Ward's Auto World, volume 18, numbers 1-6, page 65:

     Like an accordion at a country wedding producing sweet-and-sour notes, some importers are expanding their U.S. retail automotive operations while others are skinnying down.

   • 2014, Lloyd E. McIlveen, Improving on Love and Relationships:

     Humans utilize a kind of sweet and sour blend of love potion called charm.

Synonyms

• (inspiring good and bad feelings): bittersweet

Derived terms

• sweet-and-sour sauce

Translations

combined sweet and sour taste

• Burmese: ချိုချဉ် (my) (hkyuihkyany)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 甜酸 (tim⁴ syun¹)

  Mandarin: 酸甜 (zh) (suāntián), 糖醋 (zh) (tángcù) (sweet and sour), 甜酸 (zh) (tiánsuān) (sweet and slightly sour)

• Czech: sladkokyselý
• Dutch: zoetzuur (nl)
• Finnish: hapanimelä (fi)
• Galician: agridoce (gl)
• German: süßsauer (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ὀξύγλυκυς (oxúglukus)

• Indonesian: asam manis, koloke, keluyuk (id)
• Ottoman Turkish: مایخوش (mayhoş)
• Persian: ملس (fa) (malas)
• Portuguese: agridoce (pt)
• Russian: ки́сло-сла́дкий (ru) (kíslo-sládkij)
• Swedish: sötsur (sv)
• Tagalog: agridulse (tl)
• Turkish: mayhoş (tr)
• Ukrainian: ки́сло-соло́дкий (kýslo-solódkyj), ви́нний (výnnyj)

See also

• barbecue sauce