Vinegar

//ˈvɪnəɡə// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sour liquid formed by the fermentation of alcohol used as a condiment or preservative; a dilute solution of acetic acid. uncountable

    "In Persia, newly married couples were presented with sheep's trotters steeped in vinegar as a love enticement."

  2. 2
    sour-tasting liquid produced usually by oxidation of the alcohol in wine or cider and used as a condiment or food preservative wordnet
  3. 3
    Any variety of vinegar. countable

    "a range of herb-flavoured vinegars"

  4. 4
    dilute acetic acid wordnet
  5. 5
    Vigor; vitality. US, countable, informal, uncountable

    "You full of vinegar now, but you 'bout through / We gonna get a steam drill to do your share of driving / Then what's all them muscles gonna do? Huh, John Henry? / Gonna take a little bit of vinegar out of you."

Verb
  1. 1
    To season or otherwise treat with vinegar. transitive

    "Accordingly, after a vast amount of moaning and crying up-stairs, and much damping of foreheads, and vinegaring of temples, and hartshorning of noses, and so forth […]"

Synonyms

All synonyms
acetumacidacidulantbread-and-butter picklebrinechokecherry

Example

More examples

"He rubs the stain with vinegar."

Etymology

From Middle English vynegre, from Old French vinaigre from Old French vyn egre, based on Latin vīnum (“wine”) + Latin ācer (“sour”). Displaced Old English æċed (survived in Middle English eced).

Related phrases

Chinese red vinegarChinkiang vinegarMarseilles vinegarVinegar BibleZhenjiang vinegarage like vinegarapple cider vinegararomatic vinegarbalsamic vinegarcane vinegarchampagne vinegarchili vinegar

More for "vinegar"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.