saucy

[saw-see] /ˈsɔ si/

adjective, saucier, sauciest.

impertinent; insolent:

a saucy remark; a saucy child.

pert; boldly smart:

a saucy little hat for Easter.

Origin

1500-10; sauce + -y¹

Related forms

saucily, adverb

sauciness, noun

oversaucy, adjective

Synonyms

1. rude, impudent, fresh, brazen. 2. jaunty.

Examples from the web for saucy

If you're tired of the same old steamed vegetables, it's time to get saucy.
Her column was succinct, sometimes saucy and occasionally witty.
No, it's not that one is wearing a saucy little beret while the other is tucked into tiny pair of lederhosen.
Enjoy this saucy mix of burlesque, comedy, and dinner circus.
Add cilantro and as much of the reserved cooking liquid as you need to make mixture saucy.
Now it is time to celebrate the saucy little street urchins, the winsome starvelings.
The gown had a thousand flounces and a saucy bodice of crocheted lace.
Let the creed and commandments even have the saucy homage of parody.
They have custom canes and smoke ivory pipes and say saucy things that only they can get away with.
saucy study reveals a gene that affects aggression after provocation.

British Dictionary definitions for saucy

saucy

/ˈsɔːsɪ/

adjective saucier, sauciest

impertinent

pert; jaunty: a saucy hat

Derived Forms

saucily, adverb
sauciness, noun

Word Origin and History for saucy

adj.

c.1500, "resembling sauce," later "impertinent, flippantly bold, cheeky" (1520s), from sauce (n.) + -y (2). The connecting notion is the figurative sense of "piquancy in words or actions." Cf. sauce malapert "impertinence" (1520s), and slang phrase to have eaten sauce "be abusive" (1520s). Also cf. salty in same senses.