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, v.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, n. 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.