taste

• tast (obsolete)

From 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”)).

• IPA^(key): /teɪst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪst

taste (countable and uncountable, plural tastes)

1. One 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.

2. The sense that consists in the perception and interpretation of this sensation.

   His taste was impaired by an illness.

3. A small sample of food, drink, or recreational drugs.
4. (countable and uncountable) A person's implicit set of preferences, especially esthetic, though also culinary, sartorial, etc.

   Dr. Parker has good taste in wine.

   • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.i:

     That's very true indeed Sir Peter! after having married you I should never pretend to Taste again I allow.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     "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 painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.

5. Personal preference; liking; predilection.

   I have developed a taste for fine wine.

6. (figuratively) A 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.

   • 2007, KT Tunstall (lyrics and music), “Saving My Face”, in Drastic Fantastic‎:

     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 […]

7. A kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.

• (sensation produced by the tongue): smack, smatch; See also Thesaurus:gustation
• (set of preferences): discernment, culture, refinement, style
• (personal preference): See also Thesaurus:predilection
• (small amount of experience): impression, sample, trial

• (sensation produced by the tongue): relish, savor

• (sensation produced by the tongue): bitter, salty, sour, sweet, umami

taste (third-person singular simple present tastes, present participle tasting, simple past and past participle tasted)

1. (transitive) To sample the flavor of something orally.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 2:9:

     when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine

2. (intransitive, copulative) To have a taste; to excite a particular sensation by which flavor is distinguished.

   The chicken tasted great, but the milk tasted like garlic.

3. (transitive) To identify (a flavor) by sampling something orally.

   I can definitely taste the marzipan in this cake.

4. (transitive, figurative) To experience.

   I tasted in her arms the delights of paradise.

   They had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 2:9:

     He […] should taste death for every man.

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act II, scene ii, page 117, column 1:

     Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: […]

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Thou […] wilt taste / No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitarie.

   • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 4:

     Hopefully, Dux and Julie got to taste some of that good money, because after "No More," there was no more.

5. To take sparingly.
   • 1699, John Dryden, Epistle to John Drydentastes%20of%20pleasures%2C%20youth%20devours%22&f=false

     Age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.

6. To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 14:29:

     I tasted a little of this honey.

7. (obsolete) To try by the touch; to handle.
   • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:

     to taste the bow

     The spelling has been modernized.

• (sample the flavor of something): smack, smake; See also Thesaurus:taste
• (have a taste): hint, smack; See also Thesaurus:have taste

• taste blood
• tastes like chicken

• “taste”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “taste”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “taste”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• "taste" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 313.

taste (not comparable)

1. (Internet slang) Deliberate misspelling of tasty.

• Satet, State, Teats, Testa, Tetas, aetts, atest, state, teats, testa

From English taste.

taste

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) taste (preference of a person)

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

• IPA^(key): [ˈtastɛ]

taste

1. second-person plural imperative of tasit

From the noun tast.

• Rhymes: -astə

taste (imperative tast, infinitive at taste, present tense taster, past tense tastede, perfect tense har/er tastet)

1. To type

• indtaste

• Audio

  (file)

taste

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of tasten

• Audio

  (file)

taste

1. inflection of tasten:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

• tast, taist

Borrowed from Old French tast.

• IPA^(key): /taːst/, /tast/

taste (uncountable)

1. perceived flavor

• English: taste
• Yola: taaste, tawest, thaaste

• “tā̆st(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

taste (imperative tast, present tense taster, passive tastes, simple past and past participle tasta or tastet, present participle tastende)

1. to type (on a computer keyboard or typewriter)

• tast (noun)
• tastatur

• “taste” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

taste (Cyrillic spelling тасте)

1. vocative singular of tast