apple-sauce

A child enjoys a bowl of apple-sauce with lunch.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • A cooked fruit purée: "apple-sauce" is a sweet or savory purée made from cooked, mashed apples, often sweetened with sugar and flavored with spices like cinnamon.
   • Nonsense or flattery (informal, chiefly US slang): In American slang, "apple-sauce" can mean insincere praise, flattery, or something that is foolish or untrue. This usage is dated but still recognized.

Usage Examples

• Noun (fruit purée):

  • She served apple-sauce alongside the pork roast. (A cooked apple purée used as a side dish.)
  • The baby ate a spoonful of apple-sauce for dessert. (A sweetened apple purée for infants.)

• Noun (slang):

  • Don't give me that apple-sauce; I know you're lying. (Nonsense or empty flattery.)
  • His speech was full of apple-sauce, with no real facts. (Foolish or insincere talk.)

Advanced Usage

• "Apple-sauce" as an exclamation: Used to express disbelief or dismissal, similar to "nonsense!" or "rubbish!"

  • "He said he could fly." "Apple-sauce! That's impossible." (An expression of disbelief.)

• In idiomatic phrases: The slang sense often appears in fixed expressions like "to talk apple-sauce" (to speak nonsense).

  • Stop talking apple-sauce and tell me the truth. (Stop speaking foolishly or flatteringly.)

Variants and Related Words

• Applesauce (n): The standard spelling without a hyphen; the same meanings apply.

  • I prefer chunky applesauce to smooth. (A variant of the fruit purée.)

• Apple-saucy (adj): Characterized by or resembling flattery or nonsense (rare, informal).

  • His apple-saucy remarks annoyed everyone. (Flattering but insincere comments.)

Synonyms

• Nonsense: something absurd or meaningless.
• Flattery: excessive or insincere praise.
• Humbug: deceptive or false talk.

Phrasal Verbs

None directly associated with "apple-sauce" as a noun. However, the verb phrase "to dish out apple-sauce" (informal) means to give flattery or nonsense. - He dished out apple-sauce to the boss all day. (He gave insincere praise.)

Related Idioms

• To feed someone apple-sauce: To deceive or flatter someone with false talk.

  • Don't feed me apple-sauce; I know the facts. (Don't try to deceive me with nonsense.)

• Apple-sauce talk: Speech that is silly or overly complimentary.

  • Their conversation was just apple-sauce talk about how great everything was. (Empty, flattering chatter.)