duck sauce
3
2.2
- noun
- /dʌk sɔs/
- US
:
salsa de pato
- It wasn't duck sauce.
Examples
-
Steamed chicken with veggies and a whole handful of duck sauce packets.
-
Actually, you gonna come back and give me them two duck sauces your mama...
-
You have packets of duck sauce in your refrigerator from the 1970s.
-
Pass the duck sauce.
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He spooned duck sauce onto his egg roll.
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Can you pass the duck sauce so I can dip my spring rolls?
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I always ask for extra duck sauce when I order Chinese takeout.
Synonyms
569
1.0
A liquid served with food to add taste
2
1.6
A sweet, tangy sauce made from plums used as a dip with Chinese dishes
1
3.9
A thick sweet Chinese sauce used to add flavor to meat and stir-fry
A sweet sauce made from apricots used with meat or desserts
A sweet sauce made from peaches used to add flavor to food
How Sweet
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'duck sauce' follows a common noun+noun pattern where the modifier suggests association or use (i.e., a sauce related to duck), so a B1 learner would infer a sauce connected to duck. However, the specific sense — a sweet, tangy Chinese(-American) condiment not made from duck — is not fully predictable and may be misunderstood (e.g., thought to contain duck or be made for duck), so the transparency is only partial.
Etymology
Duck sauce probably comes from the simple idea that restaurants served a sweet sauce with roasted duck, so people called it the 'duck sauce' for short. That's why today duck sauce means the sweet, tangy sauce served with Chinese dishes.