What is "sour grapes"

Grape \Grape\, n. [OF. grape, crape, bunch or cluster of grapes, F. grappe, akin to F. grappin grapnel, hook; fr. OHG. chrapfo hook, G. krapfen, akin to E. cramp. The sense seems to have come from the idea of clutching. Cf. Agraffe, Cramp, Grapnel, Grapple.]

1. (Bot.) A well-known edible berry growing in pendent clusters or bunches on the grapevine. The berries are smooth-skinned, have a juicy pulp, and are cultivated in great quantities for table use and for making wine and raisins.

2. (Bot.) The plant which bears this fruit; the grapevine.

3. (Man.) A mangy tumor on the leg of a horse.

4. (Mil.) Grapeshot.

   Grape borer. (Zo["o]l.) See Vine borer.

   Grape curculio (Zo["o]l.), a minute black weevil ( Craponius in[ae]qualis) which in the larval state eats the interior of grapes.

   Grape flower, or

   Grape hyacinth (Bot.), a liliaceous plant ( Muscari racemosum) with small blue globular flowers in a dense raceme.

   Grape fungus (Bot.), a fungus ( Oidium Tuckeri) on grapevines; vine mildew.

   Grape hopper (Zo["o]l.), a small yellow and red hemipterous insect, often very injurious to the leaves of the grapevine.

   Grape moth (Zo["o]l.), a small moth ( Eudemis botrana), which in the larval state eats the interior of grapes, and often binds them together with silk.

   Grape of a cannon, the cascabel or knob at the breech.

   Grape sugar. See Glucose.

   Grape worm (Zo["o]l.), the larva of the grape moth.

   Sour grapes, things which persons affect to despise because they can not possess them; -- in allusion to [AE]sop's fable of the fox and the grapes.

Sour \Sour\, a. [Compar. Sourer; superl. Sourest.] [OE. sour, sur, AS. s?r; akin to D. zuur, G. sauer, OHG. s?r, Icel. s?rr, Sw. sur, Dan. suur, Lith. suras salt, Russ. surovui harsh, rough. Cf. Sorrel, the plant.]

1. Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart.

   All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite.
   --Bacon.

2. Changed, as by keeping, so as to be acid, rancid, or musty, turned.

3. Disagreeable; unpleasant; hence; cross; crabbed; peevish; morose; as, a man of a sour temper; a sour reply. ``A sour countenance.''
   --Swift.

   He was a scholar . . . Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.
   --Shak.

4. Afflictive; painful. ``Sour adversity.''
   --Shak.

5. Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh.

   Sour dock (Bot.), sorrel.

   Sour gourd (Bot.), the gourdlike fruit Adansonia Gregorii, and A. digitata; also, either of the trees bearing this fruit. See Adansonia.

   Sour grapes. See under Grape.

   Sour gum (Bot.) See Turelo.

   Sour plum (Bot.), the edible acid fruit of an Australian tree ( Owenia venosa); also, the tree itself, which furnished a hard reddish wood used by wheelwrights.

   Syn: Acid; sharp; tart; acetous; acetose; harsh; acrimonious; crabbed; currish; peevish.

n. 1 (context idiomatic English) Things that somebody pretends to despise because he/she cannot possess them. 2 (context idiomatic English) A put down or express of disdain about something that one desires but cannot have.

n. disparagement of something that is unattainable

Sour Grapes is a 1998 American comedy film written and directed by Larry David. The film stars Steven Weber, Craig Bierko, Viola Harris, Karen Sillas, Robyn Peterman and Matt Keeslar. The film was released on April 17, 1998, by Columbia Pictures.

Sour grapes may refer to:

Sour Grapes: a book of poems is an early work by William Carlos Williams. Published in 1921, the collection includes poems such as "A Widow's Lament in Springtime", "The Great Figure", "Complaint", and "Queen-Ann's-Lace".

Williams was still struggling to find his audience at the time that he published Sour Grapes and he was forced to pay for some, if not all, of the publishing expenses himself. As a book, it is highly representative of Williams's early writing. The book is filled out with improvisational pieces that Williams seems to have thrown together in the spare moments that he stole from his medical practice. However, this poetic improvisation produced remarkable language, which is evident in "A Widow's Lament in Springtime". and "Complaint".

Like most of Williams' early works, Sour Grapes was ignored by most critics at the time, but it was well received by Kenneth Burke in The Dial in February 1922.