Definition of "taste"

taste

/teɪst/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural tastes
1. One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
2. The sense that consists in the perception and interpretation of this sensation.
3. A small sample of food, drink, or recreational drugs.
4. (countable and uncountable) A person's implicit set of preferences, especially esthetic, though also culinary, sartorial, etc.
  Quotations
  That's very true indeed Sir Peter! after having married you I should never pretend to Taste again I allow.
  1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.i
  "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; […]."
  1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
  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.
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎
5. Personal preference; liking; predilection.
6. (figuratively) A small amount of experience with something that gives a sense of its quality as a whole.
  Quotations
  I'm all out of luck / I'm all out of faith / I would give everything just for one taste / But everything's here, all out of place […]
  2007, KT Tunstall (lyrics and music), “Saving My Face”, in Drastic Fantastic‎
7. A kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.
verb
third-person singular simple present tastes, present participle tasting, simple past and past participle tasted
1. (transitive) To sample the flavor of something orally.
  Quotations
  when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], John 2:9
2. (intransitive, copulative) To have a taste; to excite a particular sensation by which flavor is distinguished.
3. (transitive) To identify (a flavor) by sampling something orally.
4. (transitive, figurative) To experience.
  Quotations
  He […] should taste death for every man.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Hebrews 2:9
  Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: […]
  c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, act II, scene ii, page 117, column 1
  Thou […] wilt taste / No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitarie.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  Hopefully, Dux and Julie got to taste some of that good money, because after "No More," there was no more.
  1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, page 4
5. To take sparingly.
  Quotations
  Age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.
  1699, John Dryden, Epistle to John Drydentastes%20of%20pleasures%2C%20youth%20devours%22&f=false
6. To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
  Quotations
  I tasted a little of this honey.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1 Samuel 14:29
7. (obsolete) To try by the touch; to handle.
  Quotations
  to taste the bow
  1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857,

Definition of "taste"

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