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Webster 1913 Edition

Taste

Taste

(tāst)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Tasted
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Tasting
.]
[OE.
tasten
to feel, to taste, OF.
taster
, F.
tater
to feel, to try by the touch, to try, to taste, (assumed) LL.
taxitare
, fr. L.
taxare
to touch sharply, to estimate. See
Tax
,
Verb.
T.
]
1.
To try by the touch; to handle;
as, to
taste
a bow
.
[Obs.]
Chapman.
Taste
it well and stone thou shalt it find.
Chaucer.
2.
To try by the touch of the tongue; to perceive the relish or flavor of (anything) by taking a small quantity into a mouth. Also used figuratively.
When the ruler of the feast had
tasted
the water that was made wine.
John ii. 9.
When Commodus had once
tasted
human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse.
Gibbon.
3.
To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
I
tasted
a little of this honey.
1 Sam. xiv. 29.
4.
To become acquainted with by actual trial; to essay; to experience; to undergo.
He . . . should
taste
death for every man.
Heb. ii. 9.
5.
To partake of; to participate in; – usually with an implied sense of relish or pleasure.
Thou . . . wilt
taste

No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary.
Milton.

Taste

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To try food with the mouth; to eat or drink a little only; to try the flavor of anything;
as, to
taste
of each kind of wine
.
2.
To have a smack; to excite a particular sensation, by which the specific quality or flavor is distinguished; to have a particular quality or character;
as, this water
tastes
brackish; the milk
tastes
of garlic
.
Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason
Shall to the king
taste
of this action.
Shakespeare
3.
To take sparingly.
For age but
tastes
of pleasures, youth devours.
Dryden.
4.
To have perception, experience, or enjoyment; to partake;
as, to
taste
of nature’s bounty
.
Waller.
The valiant never
taste
of death but once.
Shakespeare

Taste

,
Noun.
1.
The act of tasting; gustation.
2.
A particular sensation excited by the application of a substance to the tongue; the quality or savor of any substance as perceived by means of the tongue; flavor;
as, the
taste
of an orange or an apple; a bitter
taste
; an acid
taste
; a sweet
taste
.
3.
(Physiol.)
The one of the five senses by which certain properties of bodies (called their taste, savor, flavor) are ascertained by contact with the organs of taste.
☞ Taste depends mainly on the contact of soluble matter with the terminal organs (connected with branches of the glossopharyngeal and other nerves) in the papillae on the surface of the tongue. The base of the tongue is considered most sensitive to bitter substances, the point to sweet and acid substances.
4.
Intellectual relish; liking; fondness; – formerly with of, now with for;
as, he had no
taste
for study
.
I have no
taste

Of popular applause.
Dryden.
5.
The power of perceiving and relishing excellence in human performances; the faculty of discerning beauty, order, congruity, proportion, symmetry, or whatever constitutes excellence, particularly in the fine arts and belles-letters; critical judgment; discernment.
6.
Manner, with respect to what is pleasing, refined, or in accordance with good usage; style;
as, music composed in good
taste
; an epitaph in bad
taste
.
7.
Essay; trial; experience; experiment.
Shak.
8.
A small portion given as a specimen; a little piece tasted or eaten; a bit.
Bacon.
9.
A kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.
Syn. – Savor; relish; flavor; sensibility; gout.
–
Taste
,
Sensibility
,
Judgment
. Some consider taste as a mere sensibility, and others as a simple exercise of judgment; but a union of both is requisite to the existence of anything which deserves the name. An original sense of the beautiful is just as necessary to aesthetic judgments, as a sense of right and wrong to the formation of any just conclusions on moral subjects. But this “sense of the beautiful” is not an arbitrary principle. It is under the guidance of reason; it grows in delicacy and correctness with the progress of the individual and of society at large; it has its laws, which are seated in the nature of man; and it is in the development of these laws that we find the true “standard of taste.”
What, then, is
taste
, but those internal powers,
Active and strong, and feelingly alive
To each fine impulse? a discerning sense
Of decent and sublime, with quick disgust
From things deformed, or disarranged, or gross
In species? This, nor gems, nor stores of gold,
Nor purple state, nor culture, can bestow,
But God alone, when first his active hand
Imprints the secret bias of the soul.
Akenside.
Taste buds
, or
Taste goblets
(Anat.)
,
the flask-shaped end organs of taste in the epithelium of the tongue. They are made up of modified epithelial cells arranged somewhat like leaves in a bud.

Webster 1828 Edition

Taste

TASTE

, v.t.
1.
To perceive by means of the tongue; to have a certain sensation in consequence of something applied to the tongue, the organ of taste; as, to taste bread; to taste wine; to taste a sweet or an acid.
2.
To try the relish of by the perception of the organs of taste.
3.
To try by eating a little; or to eat a little.
Because I tasted a little of this honey. 1 Sam.14.
4.
To essay first.
5.
To have pleasure from.
6.
To experience; to feel; to undergo.
That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Heb.2.
7.
To relish intellectually; to enjoy.
Thou, Adam, wilt taste no pleasure.
8.
To experience by shedding, as blood.
When Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse.

TASTE

,
Verb.
I.
To try by the mouth; to eat or drink; or to eat or drink a little only; as, to taste of each kind of wine.
1.
To have a smack; to excite a particular sensation, by which the quality or flavor is distinguished; as, butter tastes of garlic; apples boiled in a brass-kettle, sometimes taste of brass.
2.
To distinguish intellectually.
Scholars, when good sense describing,
Call it tasting and imbibing.
3.
To try the relish of any thing. Taste of the fruits; taste for yourself.
4.
To be tinctured; to have a particular quality or character.
Ev'ry idle, nice and wanton reason
Shall, to the king, taste of this action.
5.
To experience; to have perception of.
The valiant never taste of death but once.
6.
To take to be enjoyed.
Of nature's bounty men forbore to taste.
7.
To enjoy sparingly.
For age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.
8.
To have the experience or enjoyment of.
They who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and the good word of God. Heb.6.

TASTE

,
Noun.
The act of tasting; gustation.
1.
A particular sensation excited in an animal by the application of a substance to the tongue, the proper organ; as the taste of an orange or an apple; a bitter taste; an acid taste; a sweet taste.
2.
The sense by which we perceive the relish of a thing. This sense appears to reside in the tongue or its papillae. Men have a great variety of tastes. In the influenza of 1790, the taste, for some days, was entirely extinguished.
3.
Intellectual relish; as, he had no taste of true glory.
I have no taste
Of popular applause.
[Note. In this use, the word is now followed by for. 'He had no taste for glory.' When followed by of, the sense is ambiguous, or rather it denotes experience, trial.]
4.
Judgment; discernment; nice perception, or the power of perceiving and relishing excellence in human performances; the faculty of discerning beauty, order, congruity, proportion, symmetry, or whatever constitutes excellence, particularly in the fine arts and belles lettres. Taste is not wholly the gift of nature, nor wholly the effect of art. It depends much on culture. We say, a good taste, or a fine taste.
5.
Style; manner, with respect to what is pleasing; as a poem or music composed in good taste.
6.
Essay; trial; experiment. [Not in use.]
7.
A small portion given as a specimen.
8.
A bit; a little piece tasted or eaten.

Definition 2024

Taste

Taste

See also: taste and tāste

German

Noun

Taste f ‎(genitive Taste, plural Tasten)

  1. key, button

Declension

Related terms

taste

taste

See also: Taste and tāste

English

Alternative forms

Noun

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).
    Dr. Parker has good taste in wine.‎
    • 1907, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “chapter VIII”, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 4241346:
      "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:
      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.
  3. (uncountable, figuratively) A small amount of experience with something that gives a sense of its quality as a whole.
  4. A kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.

Synonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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

Translations

Anagrams

Danish

Verb

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

  1. To type

Conjugation

Derived terms

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

taste

  1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of tasten

German

Verb

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.

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

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)

Related terms

References

Etymology

From Italian tasto

Pronunciation

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