taste
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /teɪst/
rhymes: -eɪst
Forms: form: tastes
form: tasting
form: tasted
form: tasted
form: tast
Etymology: 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”)).
Senses: examples: text: when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 2:9:
text: 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 that a pint of Guinness tastes best in Ireland sounds like it could be a drinker’s romantic notion – but there is science to back up the claim. […] The stats were overwhelmingly in favor of the Guinness tasting better in Ireland – suggesting that the beer doesn’t travel well or perhaps that non-Irish bartenders don’t excel at pouring it.
ref: 2023 June 15, Rebecca Wallwork, “‘You had to be there’: Foods that taste better on home turf”, in CNN:
glosses: To sample the flavor of something orally.
examples: text: The chicken tasted great, but the milk tasted like garlic.
glosses: To have a taste; to excite a particular sensation by which flavor is distinguished.
examples: text: I can definitely taste the marzipan in this cake.
glosses: To identify (a flavor) by sampling something orally.
examples: text: I tasted in her arms the delights of paradise.
text: They had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.
text: He […] should taste death for every man.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 2:9:
text: Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: […]
ref: 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:
text: Thou […] wilt taste / No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitarie.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Hopefully, Dux and Julie got to taste some of that good money, because after "No More," there was no more.
ref: 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 4:
glosses: To experience.
examples: 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=2ahUKEwihhoWhjrzqAhV9URUIHYdFCJw4ChDoATAAegQIBBAC#v=onepage&q=%22Age%20but%20tastes%20of%20pleasures%2C%20youth%20devours%22&f=false
Age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.
glosses: To take sparingly.
examples: text: I tasted a little of this honey.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 14:29:
glosses: To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
examples: text: to taste the bow
ref: 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, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
glosses: To try by the touch; to handle.
Synonyms: sense: sample the flavor of something
word: smack
word: smake
sense: have a taste
word: hint
word: smack
word: gust
word: smatch
word: taste
Hypernyms: word: perceive
Hyponyms: word: savor
Derived terms: taste blood