Taste

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Taste \Taste\ (t[=a]st), v. 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}, v. t.]
     1. To try by the touch; to handle; as, to taste a bow. [Obs.]


        --Chapman.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Taste it well and stone thou shalt it find.
                                                    --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water
              that was made wine.                   --John ii. 9.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              When Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became
              incapable of pity or remorse.         --Gibbon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              I tasted a little of this honey.      --1 Sam. xiv.
                                                    29.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. To become acquainted with by actual trial; to essay; to
        experience; to undergo.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He . . . should taste death for every man. --Heb.
                                                    ii. 9.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. To partake of; to participate in; -- usually with an
        implied sense of relish or pleasure.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Thou . . . wilt taste
              No pleasure, though in pleasure, solitary. --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason
              Shall to the king taste of this action. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To take sparingly.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              For age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.
                                                    --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. To have perception, experience, or enjoyment; to partake;
        as, to taste of nature's bounty. --Waller.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The valiant never taste of death but once. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Taste \Taste\, n.
     1. The act of tasting; gustation.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: 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.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Intellectual relish; liking; fondness; -- formerly with
        of, now with for; as, he had no taste for study.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              I have no taste
              Of popular applause.                  --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     7. Essay; trial; experience; experiment. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     8. A small portion given as a specimen; a little piece tasted
        or eaten; a bit. --Bacon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     9. A kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Savor; relish; flavor; sensibility; gout.
  
     Usage: {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."
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  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.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     {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.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  taste
       n 1: the sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and
            throat convey information about the chemical composition
            of a soluble stimulus; "the candy left him with a bad
            taste"; "the melon had a delicious taste" [syn: {taste
            sensation}, {gustatory sensation}, {taste perception}, {gustatory
            perception}]
       2: a strong liking; "my own preference is for good literature";
          "the Irish have a penchant for blarney" [syn: {preference},
           {penchant}, {predilection}]
       3: delicate discrimination (especially of aesthetic values);
          "arrogance and lack of taste contributed to his rapid
          success"; "to ask at that particular time was the ultimate
          in bad taste" [syn: {appreciation}, {discernment}, {perceptiveness}]
       4: a brief experience of something; "he got a taste of life on
          the wild side"; "she enjoyed her brief taste of
          independence"
       5: a small amount eaten or drunk; "take a taste--you'll like
          it" [syn: {mouthful}]
       6: the faculty of taste; "his cold deprived him of his sense of
          taste" [syn: {gustation}, {sense of taste}, {gustatory
          modality}]
       7: a kind of sensing; distinguishing substances by means of the
          taste buds; "a wine tasting" [syn: {tasting}]
       v 1: have flavor; taste of something [syn: {savor}, {savour}]
       2: take a sample of; "Try these new crackers"; "Sample the
          regional dishes" [syn: {sample}, {try}, {try out}]
       3: perceive by the sense of taste; "Can you taste the garlic?"
       4: have a distinctive or characteristic taste; "This tastes of
          nutmeg" [syn: {smack}]
       5: distinguish flavors; "We tasted wines last night"
       6: experience briefly; "The ex-slave tasted freedom shortly
          before she died"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  359 Moby Thesaurus words for "taste":
     Atticism, affection, affinity, appetence, appetite, appreciate,
     appreciation, appreciation of differences, appreciativeness,
     apprehend, appropriateness, aroma, artistic judgment, assay,
     attribute, badge, bag, be aware of, be conscious of, be exposed to,
     be fond of, be partial to, be sensible of, be subjected to, bent,
     bias, bit, bite, brand, break bread, bring to test, cachet,
     canine appetite, cast, censoriousness, character, characteristic,
     chasteness, chastity, choosiness, chosen kind, chromesthesia,
     clarity, classicalism, classicism, clearness, color hearing,
     come up against, comeliness, comprehension, configuration, confirm,
     connoisseurship, conscientiousness, correctness, count calories,
     critical niceness, criticalness, crush, cultivation, cup of tea,
     cut, cut and try, dash, decorum, delicacy, delight in, design,
     desire, diet, differentia, differential, dignity, directness,
     discernment, discretion, discriminating taste, discriminatingness,
     discrimination, discriminativeness, disposition, distinction,
     distinctive feature, drop, drought, druthers, dryness, earmark,
     ease, eat, elegance, elegancy, emptiness, empty stomach, encounter,
     endure, enjoy, essay, examine, example, experience, experiment,
     fall to, fancy, fare, fashion, fastidiousness, favor, feature,
     feed, feel, feeling, felicitousness, felicity, figure, fine palate,
     finesse, finish, fittingness, five senses, flavor, flow,
     flowing periods, fluency, fondness, form, give a try,
     give a tryout, gleam, go through, good taste, grace, gracefulness,
     gracility, grain, gust, gusto, hallmark, have, have a go,
     have knowledge of, hear, hearing, heart, hint, hollow hunger,
     hunger, hungriness, idea, idiocrasy, idiosyncrasy, impress,
     impression, inclination, index, individualism, infatuation,
     intimation, judgement, judiciousness, keynote, know, labor under,
     leaning, lick, like, likes, liking, limpidity, lineaments,
     little bite, little smack, look, love, lucidity,
     making distinctions, manner, mannerism, mark, marking, meet,
     meet up with, meet with, meticulousness, mode, mold, morsel, motif,
     mouthful, naturalness, nature, neatness, niceness of distinction,
     nicety, nip, odor, palate, partake, partake of, partiality,
     particular choice, particularity, particularness, pass through,
     passion, pay, peculiarity, pellucidity, penchant, perceive,
     perception, perfectionism, personal choice, perspicuity, phonism,
     photism, piece, pinch, pitch in, plainness, play around with,
     polish, politeness, politesse, polydipsia, practice upon,
     preciseness, precisianism, precision, predilection, predisposition,
     preference, prejudice, prepossession, priggishness, proclivity,
     property, propriety, prove, prudishness, punctilio,
     punctiliousness, purism, puritanism, purity, put to trial, quality,
     quirk, receptor, refined discrimination, refined palate,
     refinement, relish, research, respond, respond to stimuli,
     restraint, road-test, run a sample, run up against, sample,
     sampling, sapidity, sapor, savor, scintilla, scrupulosity,
     scrupulousness, seal, see, seemliness, selectiveness, selectivity,
     sense, sense organ, senses, sensibility, sensillum, sensitivity,
     sensorium, sensory organ, shade, shadow, shake down, shape, sight,
     simplicity, singularity, sip, sixth sense, smack, smack the lips,
     smattering, smell, smoothness, soft, soupcon, spark, specialty,
     specimen, spend, sprinkling, stamp, stand under, stomach,
     straightforwardness, strictness, style, stylishness, substantiate,
     subtlety, suffer, suggestion, sup, suspicion, sustain, swallow,
     swatch, sweet tooth, synesthesia, tact, tactfulness, taint, take,
     tang, tapeworm, taste of, tastefulness, taster, tendency,
     terseness, test, thing, thirst, thirstiness, thought, tincture,
     tinge, token, tolerance, torment of Tantalus, touch, trace, trait,
     trick, trifle, try, try it on, try out, type, unaffectedness,
     undergo, understanding, validate, verify, weakness, whiff, wink,
     zest
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  taste [primarily MIT] n. 1. The quality in a program that tends to be
     inversely proportional to the number of features, hacks, and kluges
     programmed into it. Also `tasty', `tasteful', `tastefulness'. "This
     feature comes in N tasty flavors." Although `tasty' and `flavorful' are
     essentially synonyms, `taste' and {flavor} are not. Taste refers to
     sound judgment on the part of the creator; a program or feature can
     _exhibit_ taste but cannot _have_ taste. On the other hand, a feature
     can have {flavor}. Also, {flavor} has the additional meaning of `kind'
     or `variety' not shared by `taste'. The marked sense of {flavor} is more
     popular than `taste', though both are widely used. See also {elegant}.
     2. Alt. sp. of {tayste}.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  taste
       
          1. (primarily MIT) The quality of a program that tends to be
          inversely proportional to the number of features, hacks, and
          {kluge}s it contains.  Taste refers to sound judgment on the
          part of the creator.  See also {elegant}, {flavour}.
       
          2. Alternative spelling of "{tayste}".
       
          [{Jargon File}]