sour grapes
plural noun
pretended disdain for something one does not or cannot have: She said that she and her husband didn't want to join the club anyway, but it was clearly sour grapes.
Origin of sour grapes
First recorded in 1750–60; in allusion to Aesop's fable concerning the fox who, in an effort to save face, dismissed as sour those grapes he could not reach
Words nearby sour grapes
sour,
sour cherry,
sour cream,
sour dock,
sour gourd,
sour grapes,
sour gum,
sour mash,
sour on,
sour orange,
sour salt
British Dictionary definitions for sour grapes
sour grapes
noun
(functioning as singular)
the attitude of affecting to despise something because one cannot or does not have it oneself
Word Origin for sour grapes
from a fable by Aesop
Idioms and Phrases with sour grapes
sour grapes
Disparaging what one cannot obtain, as in The losers' scorn for the award is pure sour grapes. This expression alludes to the Greek writer Aesop's famous fable about a fox that cannot reach some grapes on a high vine and announces that they are sour. In English the fable was first recorded in William Caxton's 1484 translation, “The fox said these raisins be sour.”