1638. Peacham, Truth of Our Times. In Queene Elizabeth's time were the great bellied doublets, wide sawcy sleeves, that would be in every dish before their masters.
1663. Killegrew, Parson's Wedding, iii. Why, goodman Sauce-box, you will not make my lady pay for their reckoning, will you?
1689. Satyr Against Hypocrites [Nares]. Then, full of sawce and zeal, up steps Elnathan.
1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv., i. i. 28. No Saucebox, sure, by way of Farce, Will bid his Pastor Kiss his Arse.
1732. Fielding, Mock Doctor, 2. What's that to you, Sauce-box? Is it any business of yours.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, II. xii. How do you like your quarters, Saucebox? asked Sharples, in a 'eering tone.
c. 1838. East End Tailor's Broadside Advt. Kicksies made very saucy.
1843. Moncrieff, Scamps of London, iii. 1. I've got a sarcy pair.
1856-7. Eliot, Amos Barton, vii. Nanny . . . secretly chuckled over her outburst of sauce as the best morning's work she had ever done.
1862. Lowell, Biglow Papers. We begin to think it's nater To take sarce, and not be riled.
c. 1871. Siliad, 17. Yankee impudence and sass.
1890. M. Advertiser, 4 Nov. The witness denied that she sauced him or that she was drunk.
1897. Maugham, Liza of Lambeth, xi. I won't kill yer, but if I 'ave any more of your sauce, I'll do the next thing to it.
2. (old: now American).—Vegetables: whence garden-sauce = a salad; long-sauce = carrots, parsnips, beet, &c.; short-sauce = potatoes, turnips, onions, &c. Whence any accessory or sequel.
1705. Beverley, Hist. of Virginia. Roots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers . . . very delicious sauce to their meats.
1833. Neal, Down Easters, vii. 91. That ain't the kind o' sarse I wanted, puddin' gravy to corn-fish!. . . I wanted cabbage or potaters, or most any sort of garden sarse.
184[?]. Widow Bedott Papers, 88. If I should stay away to tea . . . don't be a lettin' into the plum sass and cake as you did the other day.
3. (venery).—Pox (q.v.) or clap (q.v.).
1697. Vanbrugh, Provok'd Wife, iv. 3. I hope your punks will give you sauce to your mutton.
3. (old).—Money: see Rhino.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas (1812), 1. ii. Having paid sauce for a supper which I had so ill digested. Ibid., II. vii. Having breakfasted, and paid sauce for my good cheer, I made but one stage to Segovia.
Phrases.—To serve with the same sauce = to minister or retaliate in kind; 'What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander' = tit-for-tat (q.v.); carrier's- (or poor man's-) sauce = hunger: cf. 'Hunger is the best sauce'; 'More sauce than pig' = 'exceeding bold' (B. E.).
1609. Man in the Moone [Nares]. After him another came unto her, and served her with the same sauce: then a third; at last she began to wax warie.
1700. Collier, Short Def. of Short View, 37. That's sawce for a goose is sawce for a gander.
1703. Ward, Lond. Spy [Nares]. If he had been strong enough I dare swear he would have serv'd him the same sauce.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, ii. Neverout [giving Miss a pinch (in return)]. Take that, Miss; What's Sauce for a Goose is for a Gander.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 367, s.v. Sauce for goose, sauce for gander.
1896. Cotsford Dick, Way of World, 44. Let the sauce good for the gander Then be seasoned, without slander, For the goose!
