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
(Taste), v. 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.
Shak. 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.
Shak. Taste
(Taste), n.
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 papillæ 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.
