Also 4–5 sure, soure, 6–7 sowre. [ME. sūre, f. sūr SOUR a. Cf. MDu. sure, zure.]
† 1. Bitterly, dearly; severely. Obs.
c. 1300. Havelok, 2005. Þus wolde þe theues me haue reft But God-þank, he hauenet sure keft.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 361. It shal bisitten vs ful soure þe siluer þat we kepen.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 111. And yit I hope … That thou schalt with this launcegay Abyen it ful soure.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 2313. Þai said, soure suld him sowe bot he þe cite ȝeld.
2. Disagreeably, unpleasantly; crossly, gloomily, unfavorably. Chiefly in phr. to look sour.
In some cases perh. the adj. used predicatively.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, liii. 37. God waitt gif that scho loukit sour!
1531. Tindale, Exp. 1 John (1537), 33. God hath no rodde in his hande, nor loketh sowre.
1557. N. T. (Geneva), Matt. vi. 16. When ye fast, loke not sowre as the hypocrites do.
1629. Maxwell, trans. Herodian, 49. The Roman Citizens being thus surrounded with direfull Mis-haps,… began to looke sowre vpon Commodus.
1693. Locke, Educ., 58. When the Father or Mother looks sowre on the Child.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Brooke Farm, vi. 73. If anything ever did make him look sour, it was his dinner not being ready.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VI. v. Nor has public speaking declined, though Lafayette and his Patrols look sour on it.
