verjuice

• verjus

From Middle English verjous, vergeous, from Old French vertjus, verjus (French verjus), from vert +‎ jus. First appears c. 1302.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɝd͡ʒuːs/, /ˈvɝd͡ʒəs/

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verjuice (usually uncountable, plural verjuices)

1. A very acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash‎^[1]:

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

   • 1886, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Chantry House:

     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.’

• sour as verjuice
• verjuiced

verjuice (third-person singular simple present verjuices, present participle verjuicing, simple past and past participle verjuiced)

1. (transitive) To render something sour; to embitter.
   • 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:

     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.