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saucer

UK/ˈsɔːsə/US/ˈsɔsɚ/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,049 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: saucers

A saucer is the small plate that sits under a teacup. Cup and saucer, a chipped saucer, put it on the saucer.

Its original job was to hold sauce, which is where the name comes from; it became the cup's plate later. Pouring tea into it to cool was normal in the eighteenth century and became a mark of bad manners afterwards. A flying saucer is named for the shape.

Vincennes Porcelain (France, circa 1739–1756), Francois Binet (France, active 1750-1775, born 1731) · Public domain

Definitions of saucer

  1. 1nounsaucerThe small plate that sits under a cup.B1+

    “He put his cup down on its saucer and spilled a little tea.”

    • Said"Put a saucer under that; you'll mark the table again."
    • WrittenThe saucers had outlived their cups and held buttons, keys and the odd biscuit.
    • UsedRest the spoon on the saucer, not in the cup.
    • ContrastA saucer, not a plate. A plate holds food; a saucer holds a cup and catches the drips. plate →
    • Not thisA small dish for nuts is not a saucer. A saucer has a ring for the cup.
    • Exchange"Cup and saucer?""Just a mug, honestly."
    • SimplyThe cup sits on the saucer. Do not drop it.

    Patterna cup and saucer · put sth on a saucer · a saucer of milk · flying saucer

saucer is a plate.

Remember it

SAUCER → a flying SAUCER under your cup

Picture a flying saucer landing on the table and a teacup climbing on top of it: the small plate under the cup is a saucer.

Where it comes from

Old French saussier means a sauce dish, from sauce, from Latin salsus, salted. It first held sauce, not cups.

  1. Old French

    saussier

  2. Middle English

    saucer

  3. English, today

    saucer

From Middle English saucer, from Old French saussier (and feminine saussiere; hence modern French saucier, saucière).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

saucer in the wild

  • A saucer is a type of small dishware used to support a cup or a potted plant.

    Saucer

  • A National Guard pilot died in pursuit of a flying saucer in 1948, and civilian research groups and conspiracy theories developed around the topic.

    Flying saucer

  • In science fiction, UFO sightings, UFO conspiracy theories, and broader popular culture, saucers are typically piloted by nonhuman beings.

    Flying saucer

  • The 1967 British flying saucer hoax was originally thought to be the landing of six mysterious "spaceships" that occurred across Southern England on Monday, 4 September 1967.

    1967 British flying saucer hoax

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.