Word.ws English Dictionary

fair suck of the sauce bottle

Syllables: fair suck of the sauce bot·tleUK/ˌfɛə ˈsʌk əv ðə ˈsɔːs ˈbɒt(ə)l/US/ˌfɛɚ ˈsʌk əv ðə ˈsɔs ˈbɑtəl/

fair suck of the sauce bottle noun: a fair chance, a reasonable opportunity; a fair go.

Noun

fair suck of the sauce bottle

  1. (Australia, colloquial, informal) A fair chance, a reasonable opportunity; a fair go.
    • [Barry] Humphries, as Hoot, the Jesus-freak, goes down under a knuckle sandwich, his mouth and detached teeth so reddened you can see he's had more than a fair suck of the sauce bottle.1972, The Bulletin, Sydney, N.S.W.: Australian Consolidated Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 45, column 2
    • Tex Morton's Goondiwindi Grey [...] A record that is as Australian as a "fair suck of the sauce bottle."1978 January 26, “From the rack: Spinning a horoscope for a Zodiac lady [music review]”, in The Age (The Age Green Guide), Melbourne, Vic.: Fairfax Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8, column 7

Interjection

  1. (Australia, colloquial, informal) Used to protest against unreasonableness, such as somebody taking more than their fair share.
    • Mary Beecher, 19, and her sister coeds love to date Americans and Englishmen but have a hard time communicating. "They just don't understand our talk," she reported and promptly wrote them a "Brief Australian Dictionary." [...] "Fair suck of the sauce bottle" means "Let's be civilized about this;"...[1973 March 22, “Aussie talk is baffling”, in The Sun, volume 272, number 107, Baltimore, Md.: The A[runah] S[hepherdson] Abell Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page B6, column 1
    • I tried to calm him down. "Fair suck of the sauce bottle," I said. "Take it easy, mate. I was just admiring your cobber. Don't often see a man like him around."1983, Alistair Skelton, Bill’s Break, Prahan, Vic.: Champion Books, →ISBN, page 198

Examples of fair suck of the sauce bottle in a sentence

  • [S]ensing that the end of 'Britain' may be inevitable, a forgotten sentiment is occurring to the one people in this island who, says Alan Ford, never get a fair suck of the sauce bottle.2003, Boris Johnson, The Essential Boris Johnson: Lend Me Your Ears, London: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 189:
  • It is time she was given a fair suck of the sauce bottle, as the Australians say.2013 August 26, Oliver Milman, quoting Boris Johnson, “Boris Johnson calls for free labour exchange between UK and Australia”, in Alan...
  • "They just don't understand our talk," she reported and promptly wrote them a "Brief Australian Dictionary." [...] "Fair suck of the sauce bottle" means "Let's be civilized about this;" [...][1973 March 22, “Aussie talk is baffling”, in The Sun, volume 272, number 107, Baltimore, Md.: The A[runah] S[hepherdson] Abell Company...
  • Fair suck of the sauce bottle’, countered Sid. ‘Look all ya gotta do is knock a little bit of the tube out and it won′t wink anymore.1986, [Bruce Pascoe], editor, Australian Short Stories, number 15, Fairfield, Vic.: Pascoe Pub., →OCLC, page 10:

Synonyms of fair suck of the sauce bottle

Origin of fair suck of the sauce bottle

An elaboration of fair go (used in protest to implore or demand that someone act with more fairness or reason). Sauce bottle appears to refer to a bottle of cheap beer or another alcoholic beverage; see sauce (“(slang) alcohol, booze”).

Questions about fair suck of the sauce bottle

What does fair suck of the sauce bottle mean?
Fair suck of the sauce bottle means a fair chance, a reasonable opportunity; a fair go.
How do you use fair suck of the sauce bottle in a sentence?
[S]ensing that the end of 'Britain' may be inevitable, a forgotten sentiment is occurring to the one people in this island who, says Alan Ford, never get a fair suck of the sauce bottle.
What part of speech is fair suck of the sauce bottle?
Fair suck of the sauce bottle can be a noun or an interjection.
How do you pronounce fair suck of the sauce bottle?
Fair suck of the sauce bottle is pronounced /ˌfɛə ˈsʌk əv ðə ˈsɔːs ˈbɒt(ə)l/ (UK).

Words near fair suck of the sauce bottle in the dictionary

  1. fair shake
  2. fair shake of the sauce bottle
  3. fair shakes
  4. fair share
  5. fair suck of the pineapple
  6. fair suck of the sauce bottle
  7. fair suck of the sauce stick
  8. fair suck of the sav
  9. fair to meddling
  10. fair to middlin'
  11. fair to middling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fair suck of the sauce bottle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-fair suck of the sauce bottle.oga.

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