disrelish

English

Etymology

From dis- +‎ relish.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈɹɛlɪʃ/

Noun

disrelish (uncountable)

1. A lack of relish: distaste
   • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding‎^[1], volume I:

     Bread or tobacco may be neglected where they are shown to be useful to health, because of an indifferency or disrelish to them; reason and consideration at first recommends, and begins their trial, and use finds, or custom makes them pleasant.

   • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the First”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 3:

     The only reason he did not rise in the Church, we are told, was the envy of others, and a disrelish entertained of him

   • 1818, John Franklin, The Journey to the Polar Sea‎^[2]:

     The residents live principally upon this most delicious fish which fortunately can be eaten a long time without disrelish.

   • 1791, Edmund Burke, Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs:

     Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told of their duty.

   • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act IV, scene II, verses 40-42:

     […] that those eyes may glow
     With wooing light upon me, ere the Morn
     Peers with disrelish, grey, barren, and cold.

   • 1872, J. Fenimore Cooper, The Bravo‎^[3]:

     "I have no other malice against the race, Signore, than the wholesome disrelish of a Christian.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 685:

     They heated up tinned food in a saucepan of hot water and ate it with sadness and disrelish, under the belief that they were economising.

2. Absence of relishing or palatable quality; bad taste; nauseousness.
   • 1674, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 268:

     [T]hey fonldy thinking to allay / Thir appetite with guſt, inſtead of Fruit / Chewd bitter Aſhes, which th'offended taſte / With ſpattering noiſe rejected: oft they aſſayd, / Hunger and thrift conſtraining, drugd as oft, / With hatefulleſt diſreliſh writh'd thir jaws / With ſoot and cinders fill'd [...]

Verb

disrelish (third-person singular simple present disrelishes, present participle disrelishing, simple past and past participle disrelished)

1. (transitive) To have no taste for; to reject as distasteful.
   • September 1, 1733, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift

     Everybody is so concerned for the public, that all private enjoyments are lost or disrelished

2. (transitive) To deprive of relish; to make nauseous or disgusting in a slight degree.
   • 1674, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 126:

     And Eve within, due at her hour prepar'd / For dinner favourie fruits, of taſte to pleaſe / True appetite, and not diſreliſh thirſt