taste 
So shalt thou be despis'd, fair maid, 
When by the sated lover tasted. 
Carew, Counsel to a Young Maid. 
II. intrans. If. To touch; feel for; explore 
by touching. 
Merlin leide his heed in the damesels lappe, and she 
be-gan to taste softly till he nil on slope. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ill. 681. 
2. To try food or drink by the lips and palate; 
eat or drink a little by way of trial, or to test 
the flavor; take a taste: often with of before 
the object. 
They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall : and 
when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. 
Mat. xxvii. 34. 
For age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours. 
Dryden, Epistle to John Dryden, 1. 61. 
Our courtier walks from dish to dish, 
Tastes for his friend of fowl and fish. 
Pope, Imit. of Horace, II. vi. 199. 
3. To have a smack ; have a particular flavor, 
savor, or relish when applied to the organs of 
taste : often followed by of. 
How tattes It? is it bitter? Shak., Hen. VIII., ii. 3. 89. 
If your butter, when it is melted, tastes of brass, it is 
your master's fault, who will not allow you a silver sauce- 
pan. Swift, Advice to Servants (Cook). 
4. To have perception, experience, or enjoy- 
ment: often with of. 
taste and see that the Lord is good. Ps. xxxiv. 8. 
Cowards die many times before their deaths ; 
The valiant never taste of death but once. 
Shale., J. C.,ii. 2. 33. 
taste 1 (tast), n. [< ME. last, taste, < OF. tost 
= It. tasto, touch, feeling; from the verb: see 
taste 1 , .] If. The act of examining or inquir- 
ing into by any of the organs of sense; the 
act of trying or testing, as by observation or 
feeling; hence, experience; experiment; test; 
trial. 
Ac Kynde Witte [common sense] cometh of alkynnes 
sijtes, 
Of bryddes and of bestes, of tastes of treuthe, and of 
deceytes. Piers Plowman (B), xii. 131. 
1 hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this [a 
plotting letter] but as an essay or taste of my virtue. 
Shak., Lear, i. 2. 47. 
2. The act of tasting; gustation. 
The sweetest honey 
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness, 
And in the taste confounds the appetite. 
Shak., R. and J., ii. 6. 13. 
The fruit 
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our woe. 
Milton, P. L., i. 2. 
3. A particular sensation excited in the organs 
of taste by the contact of certain soluble and 
sapid things; savor; flavor; relish: as, the taste 
of fish or fruit ; an unpleasant taste. 
The! [fish] ben of right goode tast, and delycious to 
mannes mete. ilandeville, Travels, p. 273. 
Is there any taste in the white of an egg? Job vi. 6. 
Tastes have been variously classified. One of the most 
useful classifications is into sweet, bitter, acid, and saline 
tastes. To excite the sensation, substances must be solu- 
ble in the fluid of the mouth. Insoluble substances, when 
brought into contact with the tongue, give rise to feelings 
of touch or of temperature, but excite no taste. 
Encyc. Brit., XXIII. 80. 
4. The sense by which the relish or savor of a 
thing is perceived when it is brought into im- 
mediate contact with special organs situated 
within the cavity of the mouth. These organs are 
the papillic, or processes on the dorsum or surface of the 
tongue, the soft palate, the tonsils, and the upper part of 
the pharynx, obviously so disposed as to take early cogni- 
zance of substances about to be swallowed, and to act as 
sentinels for the remainder of the alimentary canal, at the 
entrance of which they are situated. The tongue is also 
supplied with nerves of common sensation or touch, and 
in some cases it is difficult to distinguish between such a 
sensation and that arising from the exercise of the sense 
of taste. 
Second childishness and mere oblivion, 
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. 
Shak., As you Like it, ii. 7. 160. 
The wretch may pine, while to his smell, taste, sight, 
She holds a paradise of rich delight. 
Cowper, Hope, 1. 59. 
5. Intellectual discernment or appreciation; 
relish; fondness; predilection: formerly fol- 
lowed by of, now usually by for. 
The Taste of Beauty and the Relish of what is decent, 
Just, and amiable perfects the character of the Gentle- 
man and the Philosopher. 
Shaftesbury, Misc. Reflections, lii. 1. 
His feeling for flowers was very exquisite, and seemed 
not so much a taste as an emotion. 
Hawthorne, Seven Gables, x. 
The first point I shall notice is the great spread of the 
taste for history which has marked the period. 
Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 49. 
6. In esthetics, the faculty of discerning with 
emotions of pleasure beauty, grace, congruity, 
6196 
proportion, symmetry, order, or whatever con- 
stitutes excellence, particularly in the fine arts 
and literature; that faculty or susceptibility 
of the mind by which we both perceive and 
enjoy whatever is beautiful, harmonious, and 
true in the works of nature and art, the per- 
ception of these qualities being attended with 
an emotion of pleasure. 
That we thankful should be, 
Which we of taste and feeling are, for those parts that do 
fructify in us more than he. Shak., L. L. L., iv. 2. SO. 
Taste, if it mean anything but a paltry connoisseurship, 
must mean a general susceptibility to truth and noble- 
ness ; a sense to discern, and a heart to love and rever- 
ence all beauty, order, goodness, wheresoever or in what- 
soever forms and accompaniments they are to be seen. 
Carlyle, German Lit. 
Perfect taste is the faculty of receiving the greatest 
possible pleasure from those material sources which are 
attractive to our moral nature in its purity and perfec- 
tion. He who receives little pleasure from these sources 
wants taste; he who receives pleasure from any other 
sources has false or bad taste. Muskin, Beauty, 1. 
7. Manner, with respect to what is pleasing, 
becoming, or in agreement with the rules of 
good behavior and social propriety; the per- 
vading air, the choice of conditions and rela- 
tions, and the general arrangement and treat- 
ment in any work of art, by which esthetic per- 
ception or the lack of it in the artist or author 
is evinced ; style as an expression of propriety 
and fitness: as, a poem or music composed in 
good taste. 
There is also a large old mosque that seems to have 
been a church, and a new one in a very good taste. 
Pococke, Description of the East, II. ii. 63. 
Consider the exact sense in which a work of art is said 
to be "in good or bad taste." It does not mean that it is 
true or false ; that it is beautiful or ugly ; but that it 
does or does not comply either with the laws of choice 
which are enforced by certain modes of life, or the habits 
of mind produced by a particular sort of education. 
Jtuskin, Modern Painters, III. iv. 5. 
8. A small portion given as a sample ; a mor- 
sel, bit, or sip tasted, eaten, or drunk; hence, 
generally, something perceived, experienced, 
enjoyed, or suffered. 
Come, give us a taste of your quality ; come, a passion- 
ate speech. Shak., Hamlet, ii. 2. 452. 
He smil'd to see his merry young men 
Had gotten a taste of the tree [been beaten]. 
Robin Hood and the Beygar (Child's Ballads, V. 203). 
In the North of England ... it is customary to give 
the bees a taste of all the eatables and drinkables pre- 
pared for a funeral. N. and Q., 7th ser., X. 235. 
9f. Scent; odor; smell. 
A tabill atyret, all of triet yuer, 
Bourdurt about all with bright Aumbur, 
That smelt is & smethe, smellis full swete, 
With taste for to louche the tabull aboute [to be per- 
ceived by all about the table], 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1668. 
Corpuscles of taste. Same as gustatory corpuscles (which 
see, under corpuscle). Out Of taste, unable to discern 
or relish qualities or flavors. 
The other ladies will pronounce your coffee to be very 
good, and your mistress will confess that her mouth is 
out of taste. Swift, Advice to Servants (Footman). 
To one's taste, to one's liking ; agreeable ; acceptable. 
They who beheld with wonder how much he eat upon 
all occasions when his dinner was to his taste. 
Boswell, Johnson, an. 1763. 
Now, Mrs. Dangle, Sir Fretful Plagiary is an author to 
your own taite. Sheridan, The Critic, i. 1. 
=Syn. 3. Taste, Savor, Flavor, Smack. Taste is the gen 
eral word, so far as the sense of taste is concerned : as, the 
taste of an apple may be good, bad, strong, woody, earthy, 
etc. Savor and flavor may apply to the sense of taste or to 
that of smell. Savor in taste generally applies to food, 
but is otherwise rather indefinite : as, to detect a savor of 
garlic in soup. Flavor is generally good, but sometimes 
bad : it is often the predominating natural taste : as, the 
favor of one variety of apple is more marked or more pal- 
atable than that of another. Smack is a slight taste, or, 
figuratively, a faint smell, generally the result of some- 
thing not disagreeable added to the thing which is tasted 
or smelled : as, a smack of vanilla in ice-cream ; a smack of 
salt in the sea-breeze. 6. Taste, Sensibility. Taste is ac- 
tive, deciding, choosing, changing, arranging, etc. ; sensi- 
bility is passive, the power to feel, susceptibility of im- 
pression, as from the beautiful. 7. Taste, Judgment. As 
ompared with judgment, taste always implies esthetic 
sensibility, a sense of the beautiful, and a power of choos- 
ing, arranging, etc. , in accordance with its laws. Judgment 
is purely intellectual. A good judgment as to clothing 
decides wisely as to quality, with reference to durability, 
warmth, and general economy ; good taste as to clothing 
decides agreeably as to colors, shape, etc. , with reference 
to appearance. 
taste 2 (tast), n. [Origin obscure.] Narrow thin 
silk ribbon. 
If ... Mrs. S. has any taste she will oblige me by send- 
ing me half a yard, no matter of what color, so it be not 
black. F. A. P. Barnard, quoted in "New Haven (Conn.) 
[Palladium," April 18th, 1891. 
taste-area (tast'a"re-a), 11. A gustatory area; 
an extent of surface of the tongue or associate 
structures in which ramify nerves of gustation, 
tasto 
and in which the sense of taste resides or the 
faculty of tasting is exercised. 
taste-bud (tast'bud), n. One of the peculiar 
ovoidal or flask-shaped bodies, composed of 
modified epithelium-cells embedded in the epi- 
thelium, covering the sides of the papillse val- 
latse, and, in man and some other animals, also 
upon the opposed walls of the vallum. They 
are believed to be special organs of taste. Also 
called taste-bulb, taste-goblet, gustatory bud. 
taste-bulb (tast'bulb), n. Same as taste-bud. 
Encijc. Brit., XXIII. 79. 
taste-center (tast'sen"ter), . The gustatory 
nervous center, located by Ferrier in the gyrus 
uncinatus of the brain. 
taste-corpuscle (tast'kor"pus-l), . See cor- 
puscle. 
tasted (tas'ted), a. [< tasfei + -ed^.J Haying 
a taste (of this or that kind); flavored: chiefly 
in compounds. 
In this place are excellent oysters, small and well tasted 
like our Colchester. Evelyn, Diary, Aug., 1645. 
Beyond the castle [at Armiro] there are two springs of 
ill tasted salt water. 
Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 249. 
tasteful (tast'ful), a. [< taste^ + -/?.] 1. 
Having an agreeable taste ; savory. 
Tasteful herbs that in these gardens rise, 
Which the kind soil with milky sap supplies. Pope. 
2. Capable of discerning and enjoying what is 
suitable, beautiful, excellent, noble, or refined ; 
possessing good taste. 
His tasteful mind enjoys 
Alike the complicate charms, which glow 
Thro' the wide landscape. 
J. G. Cooper, Power of Harmony, ii. 
3. Characterized by the influence of good taste ; 
produced, constructed, arranged, or regulated 
in accordance with good taste; elegant. 
Her fondness for flowers, and jewels, and other tasteful 
ornaments. Irving, Alhambra, p. 322. 
tastefully (tast'ful-i), adr. In a tasteful man- 
ner ; with good taste. 
tastefulness (tast'ful-nes), . The state or 
quality of being tasteful. 
taste-goblet (tast'gob"let), n. Same as taste- 
bud. 
tasteless (tast'les), a. [< tash-l + -less.] Hav- 
ing no taste, (a) Exciting no sensation in the organs 
of taste ; insipid : as, a tasteless medicine. 
A fine, bright, scarlet powder, . . . odorless and taste- 
less. U. S. Pharmacopoeia (6th decennial revision), p. 180. 
(6) Incapable of the sense of taste : as, the tongue when 
furred is nearly tasteless, (c) Having no power of giving 
pleasure ; stale ; insipid ; uninteresting ; dull. 
Since you lost my dear Mother, your Time has been so 
heavy, so lonely, and so tasteless. 
Steele, Conscious Lovers, i. 2. 
(d) Not in accordance with the principles of good taste. 
A mile and a half of hotels and cottages, ... all flam- 
ing, tasteless carpenter's architecture, gay with paint. 
C. D. Warner, Their Pilgrimage, p. 36. 
(e) Destitute of the power to appreciate or enjoy what is 
excellent, beautiful, or harmonious; having bad or false 
taste : as, a tasteless age. 
For I must inform you, to your great mortification, that 
your Lordship is universally admired by this tasteless 
People. Swift, in Ellis's Lit. Letters, p. 342. 
tastelessly (tast'les-li), adv. In a tasteless 
manner. Imp. Diet. 
tastelessness (tast'les-nes), n. The state or 
property of being tasteless, in any sense, 
taster (tas'ter), n. [< ME. tastotir (a cup); < 
ffltffel + -erl.] 1. One who tastes. Specifically 
(a) One whose duty it is to test the quality of food or 
drink by tasting it before serving it to his master. 
Shall man presume to be my master, 
Who 's but my caterer and taster > 
Swift, Riddles, iv. 
(b) One skilled in distinguishing the qualities of liquors, 
tea, etc., by the taste. 
Alnagers, searchers, tasters of wine, customers of ports. 
Nineteenth Century, XXII. 775. 
2. An implement by which a small sample of 
anything to be tasted is manipulated, (a) In the 
wine- trade, a silver or silver-plated cup, very shallow, and 
having on the bottom one or more bosses : the reflection 
of the light from these helps the taster to judge of the 
quality and age of the wine. 
Tastour, a lytell cuppe to tast wyne tasse a gouster le 
nin. Palsgrave, p. 279. 
(b) A gimlet-shaped tool by which a small piece of cheese 
can be drawn from the center of the mass. 
3. A hydrocyst of some polyps. 
Alternating with the polypites at intervals along the 
polypstem are found very curious bodies called tasters. 
Stand, ffat. Hist., I. 100. 
tastily (tas'ti-li), adr. In a tasty manner; with 
good taste. [Colloq.] 
tasto (tas'to), . [It.: see tante l .~\ Same as 
key 1 , 4 (b) Tasto solo, in music, one key at a time: 
