Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SOUR, v.t.

1. To make acid; to cause to have a sharp taste. So the sun's heat, with different pow'rs. / Ripens the grape, the liquor sours. – Swift.
2. To make harsh, cold or unkindly. Tufts of grass sour land. – Mortimer.
3. To make harsh in temper; to make cross, crabbed, peevish or discontented. Misfortunes often sour the temper. Pride had not sour'd, nor wrath debas'd my heart. – Harte.
4. To make uneasy or less agreeable. Hail, great king! / To sour your happiness I must report / The queen is dead. – Shak.
5. In rural economy, to macerate, as lime, and render fit for the plaster or mortar. – Encyc.