taste

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See also: Taste and to taste

English[edit]

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Wikipedia

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English tasten, from Old French taster from assumed Vulgar Latin *taxitāre, a new iterative of Latin taxāre (“to touch sharply”), from tangere (“to touch”). Replaced native Middle English smaken, smakien (“to taste”) (from Old English smacian (“to taste”)), Middle English smecchen (“to taste, smack”) (from Old English smeccan (“to taste”)), Middle English buriȝen (“to taste”) (from Old English byrigan, birian (“to taste”)).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

taste (countable and uncountable, plural tastes)

  1. One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals (Wikipedia).
  2. (countable and uncountable) A person's implicit set of preferences, especially esthetic, though also culinary, sartorial, etc. (Wikipedia).
    • 1907, Robert Chambers, chapter 8, The Younger Set[1]:
      “ 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 ; […]. ”
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, The China Governess[2]:
      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.
    Dr. Parker has good taste in wine.
  3. (uncountable, figuratively) A small amount of experience with something that gives a sense of its quality as a whole.

Synonyms[edit]

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from taste (noun)

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb[edit]

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.
    • Bible, John ii. 9
      when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine
  2. (intransitive) To have a taste; to excite a particular sensation by which flavour is distinguished.
    The chicken tasted great, but the milk tasted like garlic.
  3. To experience.
    I tasted in her arms the delights of paradise.
    They had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.
    • Shakespeare
      The valiant never taste of death but once.
    • Bible, Heb. ii. 9
      He […] should taste death for every man.
    • Milton
      Thou […] wilt taste / No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary.
  4. To take sparingly.
    • Dryden
      Age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.
  5. To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
    • Bible, 1 Sam. xiv. 29
      I tasted a little of this honey.
  6. (obsolete) To try by the touch; to handle.
    • Chapman
      to taste a bow

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

External links[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

taste

  1. singular present subjunctive of tasten

German[edit]

Verb[edit]

taste

  1. First-person singular present of tasten.
  2. First-person singular subjunctive I of tasten.
  3. Third-person singular subjunctive I of tasten.
  4. Imperative singular of tasten.
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