degust

English

Etymology

From French déguster.

Verb

degust (third-person singular simple present degusts, present participle degusting, simple past and past participle degusted)

1. To taste carefully to fully appreciate something; to savour
   • 1883, R.L. Stevenson, “Napa wine”, in The Silverado Squatters‎^[1], Chatto and Windus, →ISBN, page 35f.:

     If wine is to withdraw its most poetic countenance, the sun of the white dinner-cloth, a deity to be invoked by two or three, all fervent, hushing their talk, degusting tenderly and storing reminiscences &emdash; for a bottle of good wine, like a good act, shines ever in the retrospect — if wine is to desert us, go thy ways, old Jack! Now we begin to have compunctions, and look back at the brave bottles squandered upon dinner-parties, where the guests drank grossly, discussing politics the while, and even the schoolboy "took his whack," like liquorice water.

   • 1892, M. Betham-Edwards, A north-country comedy‎^[2], J.B. Lippincott, page 17:

     The bread was passing stale the cheese a trifle hard the beer somewhat flat but the pair had never degusted a meal with more relish.

   • 1895, O. Crawfurd, Chapman's Magazine of Fiction‎^[3], volume 1, Chapman & Hall, page 269:

     I began to tell him all the tale of the demons, at which relation, first of all, he cried "Pshaw!"... But after he had degusted the matter a little he bade me repeat it all again from the beginning...

   • 1898, L. Menand, Autobiography and Recollections of Incidents Connected with Horticultural Affairs‎^[4], page 78:

     He took the bottle filled up his glass half full and degusted it, *en connoisseur*, and said it is good but mine at home is better, it is older

   • 1904, F.T. Bullen, Creatures of the Sea: Being the Life Stories of Some Sea Beasts and Fishes‎^[5], Religious Tract Society, page 409:

     as the bird soars once more, the observer may see it [the fish] being slowly degusted.

   • 1912, S.L. Wolff, The Greek Romances in Elizabethan Prose Fiction‎^[6], Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 4:

     Sentiment, the inward working of emotion, does not issue in action, and so becomes mere sentimentality, to be lingered over, sipped, and degusted, for its own sake.

   • 2008, J. Hurt, S. Ehlers, “Introduction”, in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cheeses of the World: A Tasteful Guide to Selecting, Serving, and Enjoying Cheese‎^[7], DK Publishing, →ISBN, page 27:

     This book is meant to help you along in your own quest for cheese, and I hope that you do taste the cheeses that you read about. By the time you finish this book you should have degusted a lot of wonderful cheese.

Related terms

• degustation

Anagrams

• deguts, gusted