Sour grapes

Sour grapes means pretending disdain for something one does not or cannot have or speaking or behaving ungraciously after a disappointment or defeat. The expression dates in this sense from the mid-18th century but the origin of sour grapes is attributed to one of Aesop’s Fables c. 550 BC The Fox and the Grapes. In this fable, the fox says the grapes are sour only because he cannot reach them. Sour grapes are also mentioned in the Bible, in Jeremiah 31:29 and Ezekiel 18:2, “the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge” but both these biblical references to sour grapes appear to be literal as opposed to metaphorical.