/teɪst/
OriginFrom Middle English tasten, borrowed from Old French taster, from assumed Vulgar Latin *tastāre, from assumed Vulgar Latin *taxitāre, a new iterative of Latin taxāre (“to touch sharply”), from tangere (“to touch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g-. Almost displaced native Middle English smaken, smakien (“to taste”) (from Old English smacian (“to taste”)), Middle English smecchen (“to taste, smack”) (from Old English smæċċan (“to taste”)) (whence Modern English smack), Middle English buriȝen (“to taste”) (from Old English byrigan, birian (“to taste”)).
- countable, uncountableOne of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
“He had a strange taste in his mouth.”
“Venison has a strong taste.”
“Like smell, taste has been found to imprint our minds with strong memories.”
- countable, uncountableThe sense that consists in the perception and interpretation of this sensation.
“His taste was impaired by an illness.”
- countable, uncountableA small sample of food, drink, or recreational drugs.
- countable, uncountableA person's implicit set of preferences, especially esthetic, though also culinary, sartorial, etc.
“Dr. Parker has good taste in wine.”
“That's very true indeed Sir Peter! after having married you I should never pretend to Taste again I allow.”
“"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a paintin”
- countable, uncountablePersonal preference; liking; predilection.
“I have developed a taste for fine wine.”
- countable, figuratively, uncountableA small amount of experience with something that gives a sense of its quality as a whole.
“Such anecdotes give one a taste of life on a trauma ward.”
“I'm all out of luck / I'm all out of faith / I would give everything just for one taste / But everything's here, all out of place[…]”
- countable, uncountableA kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.
- transitiveTo sample the flavor of something orally.
“when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine”
“Does a bagel in New York City really taste better because of the water, or is it our desire to feel like a “real” New Yorker, even for a few minutes over breakfast, that does the trick? […] The idea t”
- copulative, intransitiveTo have a taste; to excite a particular sensation by which flavor is distinguished.
“The chicken tasted great, but the milk tasted like garlic.”
- transitiveTo identify (a flavor) by sampling something orally.
“I can definitely taste the marzipan in this cake.”
- figuratively, transitiveTo experience.
“I tasted in her arms the delights of paradise.”
“They had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.”
“He […] should taste death for every man.”
- To take sparingly.
“1699, John Dryden, Epistle to John Drydenhttps://books.google.es/books?id=0fo_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA147&dq=%22Age+but+tastes+of+pleasures,+youth+devours%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwihhoWhjrzqAhV9URUIHYdFCJw4ChDo”
- To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
“I tasted a little of this honey.”
- obsoleteTo try by the touch; to handle.
- Internet, alt-of, deliberate, misspelling, not-comparableDeliberate misspelling of tasty.
Formstastes(plural) · tast(alternative, obsolete) · tastes(present, singular, third-person) · tasting(participle, present) · tasted(participle, past) · tasted(past)