taste

v.tr.

1. To distinguish the flavor of by taking into the mouth.

2. To eat or drink a small quantity of.

3. To partake of, especially for the first time; experience: prisoners finally tasting freedom.

4. Archaic To appreciate or enjoy.

v.intr.

1. To distinguish flavors in the mouth.

2. To have a distinct flavor: The stew tastes salty.

3. To eat or drink a small amount.

4. To have experience or enjoyment; partake: tasted of the life of the very rich.

n.

3. The act of tasting.

4. A small quantity eaten or tasted.

5. A limited or first experience; a sample: "Thousands entered the war, got just a taste of it, and then stepped out" (Mark Twain).

6. A personal preference or liking: a taste for adventure; a play that was not to my taste.

7. The ability to recognize and appreciate what is beautiful, excellent, or appropriate: has good taste in clothes.

8. The sense of what is proper, seemly, or least likely to give offense in a given social situation: a remark made in bad taste.

9. Obsolete The act of testing; trial.

n

1. (Physiology) the sense by which the qualities and flavour of a substance are distinguished by the taste buds

2. (Physiology) the sensation experienced by means of the taste buds

3. the act of tasting

4. a small amount eaten, drunk, or tried on the tongue

5. a brief experience of something: a taste of the whip.

6. a preference or liking for something; inclination: to have a taste for danger.

7. the ability to make discerning judgments about aesthetic, artistic, and intellectual matters; discrimination: to have taste.

8. judgment of aesthetic or social matters according to a generally accepted standard: bad taste.

9. discretion; delicacy: that remark lacks taste.

10. obsolete the act of testing

vb

11. (Physiology) to distinguish the taste of (a substance) by means of the taste buds

12. (usually tr) to take a small amount of (a food, liquid, etc) into the mouth, esp in order to test the quality: to taste the wine.

13. (often foll by of) to have a specific flavour or taste: the tea tastes of soap; this apple tastes sour.

14. (when: intr, usually foll by of) to have an experience of (something): to taste success.

15. (tr) an archaic word for enjoy

16. (tr) obsolete to test by touching

1. A mouth on me like a Turkish wrestler’s jock-strap —M. C. Beaton
2. As pleasingly prickly as a kitten’s tongue —Slogan for Gevrey-Chamertin wine
3. A fastidious taste is like a squeamish appetite; the one has its origin in some disease of the mind, as the other has in some ailment of the stomach —Robert Southey
4. Full of rich flavor as a piece torn off an old shirt —Raymond Chandler
5. His mouth felt as if it had been to a party without him —Peter DeVries
6. His mouth was tastelessly dry, as though he had been eating dust —Joseph Conrad
7. My mouth [from smoking a cigarette] tasted like a cross between charred sticks and spoiled eggs —Sue Grafton
8. My mouth was dry and tasty as a hen-coop floor —Harold Adams
9. My mouth tasted like an old penny —Robert B. Parker
10. My tongue felt like a slice of ham in my mouth, salty and pink —Jay Parini
11. Palates like shoe leather —Angela Carter
12. (Melons … as) sweet to the tongue as gold is to the mind —Borden Deal
13. Tasted like a fart —Reynolds Price
14. Tasted like it had been fried in tar —Larry McMurtry
15. Taste is the luxury of abeyant claims and occurs, like Wordsworth’s poetry, in a kind of tranquillity —Stanley Elkin
16. Taste like a cup of lukewarm consommé at a spinsterish tearoom —Raymond Chandler, on mystery writing
17. (The crap still in his mouth made everything) taste like feathers —William Mcllvanney
18. Taste like the Volga at low tide —Line from movie Love At First Bite. The character making this comparison is Count Von Dracula.
19. Tastes like cool, wet sand under pearly seaside light —Slogan for Chateau Guiraud’s Chateau “G” wine
20. Tastes like the wrath to come —Irvin S. Cobb

    Cobb used the comparison to describe the taste of corn liquor.

21. Tastes rather like an old attic —J. B. Priestly
22. Tasty as summer’s first peach —Elyse Sommer
23. Tasty, like an angel pissing on your tongue —Anon

    This was used throughout the galleys of Great Lakes steamships to describe good-tasting liquid or solid food.