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Glite Dictionary
Tabasco sauce

Tabasco sauce

1 2.8
A hot sauce that uses aged red peppers and vinegar
  • noun
  • /təˈbæskoʊ sɔs/
translation icon : salsa Tabasco
  • a teaspoon of Tabasco sauce
  • a dash of Tabasco sauce
  • drops of Tabasco sauce

Luigi, I have a bottle of Tabasco sauce.

Examples

  • Make sure we have some Tabasco sauce at this table.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Pours it in a bowl, then pours Tabasco sauce on it.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • My daddy always took sauerkraut juice and Tabasco sauce for a hangover, mixed in one egg, not two, and some tomato juice...

    Fiction book (1993)

  • For a spicy kick, I always add a few drops of Tabasco sauce to my scrambled eggs.

  • The recipe calls for chicken wings marinated in Tabasco sauce to enhance their flavor.

  • You can spice up your meal by drizzling Tabasco sauce over tacos.

Synonyms

hot sauce
vsTabasco sauce
34 1.0

A spicy sauce made from chili peppers that people add to food for heat

is a specific vinegar and fully aged red pepper preparation with distinctive heat
Sriracha
vsTabasco sauce
7 4.8

A spicy chili sauce from Thailand that people put on food to add heat

is more vinegar driven and made from fully aged red peppers without sweet garlic
chili sauce
vsTabasco sauce
  • US
1 1.0

A spicy sauce made from peppers, tomatoes, and vinegar to add heat to food

is sharper and more vinegar based, made from fully aged red peppers not tomato mixes
Tabasco
vsTabasco sauce
1 3.9

A very spicy sauce made from aged red peppers

is the common full product name rather than the trademarked label

How Spicy

habanero
4 4.9
Tabasco sauce
1 2.8
hot sauce
34 1.0
chili sauce
  • US
1 1.0
pepper sauce
2 2.8

Surface Forms

Tabasco sauce singular
Tabasco sauces plural

Morphology

Tabasco + sauce

This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase: 'Tabasco' (a named hot-pepper-based product) + 'sauce' (a condiment), so the meaning—a specific spicy sauce—is directly derivable from the constituents. The pattern 'X sauce' is a regular, cross-linguistic naming pattern (brand/type + generic noun), making the expression predictable to learners who know the constituent words.

Etymology

Tabasco sauce comes from the name of the hot pepper Tabasco and a place called Tabasco in Mexico; one popular story says a family on Avery Island, Louisiana, in the 1800s mashed ripe red peppers, let them age in barrels, and mixed them with vinegar to make a strong sauce. That's why the name now means a small bottle of very 'spicy' sauce you add to food.