What does you got sauce on your face mean?

Answer 1

Most slang and idioms are based on some element of fact, often known or realized by experiencing the situation. So if you think about the phrase, and what it would mean to experience that situation, you can figure out the context and meaning.

"You've got sauce on your face" is a phrase which origins go back probably to shortly after "sauces" were introduced into daily life. In high society, etiquette was supreme. If a person had dribbles or smears of food on his/her mouth or face, that would be a huge embarrassment and not accepted in social circles. To leave food, drink, crumbs on one's face would be offensive to others. So, people were expected to politely dab with a napkin and make sure that food or drink went into the mouth, not around it. Otherwise, the person would surely suffer embarrassment and ridicule.

On the other hand, having food or drinks on one's face after eating or drinking became associated with being "uncouth", slovenly, and the person guilty of such a social infraction was likely in a lower societal level. In other words, people in the polite society looked down on people who did such things, and especially if the 'offender' left the food/drink on his face!

So, knowing that the primary result of having food or drink ON your face is (1) an embarrassment and (2) an act that other people frown upon, will judge you for having, or even make fun of you for having done (even accidentally), can you see what these statements might mean:

• John had egg on his face after his girlfriend caught him in a lie.
• Mary had sauce on her face when the police caught her driving without a license.
• When the police arrived, the underage party-goers had sauce on their faces when they had to call their parents to come pick them up from jail.

These phrases simply mean, "Gotcha! You were caught in a very embarrassing situation that is so obvious and not very easy to hide or lie your way out of... just like 'we caught you red-handed'. And now, haha, we get to throw your embarrassment in your face-- since you obviously didn't care about appearances and what you should and shouldn't do in (cough) 'polite' society!"

Usually, after "rubbing it in" a few times, other people let the "offense" go and eventually the person no longer has the "sauce on his face" like he (seemingly) did when his bad act or poor judgment was first discovered!