taste

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To distinguish the flavor of by taking into the mouth.
2. v. To eat or drink a small quantity of.
3. v. To partake of, especially for the first time; experience.
4. v. To perceive as if by the sense of taste.
5. v. Archaic To appreciate or enjoy.
6. v. To distinguish flavors in the mouth.
7. v. To have a distinct flavor: The stew tastes salty.
8. v. To eat or drink a small amount.
9. v. To have experience or enjoyment; partake: tasted of the life of the very rich.
10. n. The sense that distinguishes the sweet, sour, salty, and bitter qualities of dissolved substances in contact with the taste buds on the tongue.
11. n. This sense in combination with the senses of smell and touch, which together receive a sensation of a substance in the mouth.
12. n. The sensation of sweet, sour, salty, or bitter qualities produced by or as if by a substance placed in the mouth.
13. n. The unified sensation produced by any of these qualities plus a distinct smell and texture; flavor.
14. n. A distinctive perception as if by the sense of taste: an experience that left a bad taste in my mouth.
15. n. The act of tasting.
16. n. A small quantity eaten or tasted.
17. n. A limited or first experience; a sample: "Thousands entered the war, got just a taste of it, and then stepped out” ( Mark Twain).
18. n. A personal preference or liking: a taste for adventure.
19. n. The faculty of discerning what is aesthetically excellent or appropriate.
20. n. A manner indicative of the quality of such discernment: a room furnished with superb taste.
21. n. The sense of what is proper, seemly, or least likely to give offense in a given social situation.
22. n. A manner indicative of the quality of this sense.
23. n. Obsolete The act of testing; trial.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To touch; test by touching; handle; feel.
2. To prove; test; try; examine.
3. To test or prove by the tongue or palate; take into the mouth in small quantity, in order to try the flavor or relish; specifically, to test for purposes of trade.
4. To eat or drink; try by eating or drinking, as by morsels or sips.
5. To perceive or distinguish by means of the tongue or palate; perceive the flavor of.
6. To give a flavor or relish to.
7. To have a taste for; relish; enjoy; like.
8. To be agreeable or relishing to; please.
9. To perceive; recognize; take cognizance of.
10. To know by experience; prove; undergo.
11. To participate in; partake of, often with the idea of relish or enjoyment.
12. To smell.
13. To enjoy carnally.
14. To touch; feel for; explore by touching.
15. 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.
16. To have a smack; have a particular flavor, savor, or relish when applied to the organs of taste: often followed by of.
17. To have perception, experience, or enjoyment: often with of.
18. n. The act of examining or inquiring into by any of the organs of sense; the act of trying or testing, as by observation or feeling; hence, experience; experiment; test; trial.
19. n. The act of tasting; gustation.
20. n. 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.
21. n. The sense by which the relish or savor of a thing is perceived when it is brought into immediate contact with special organs situated within the cavity of the mouth. These organs are the papillæ, 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 cognizance 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.
22. n. Intellectual discernment or appreciation; relish; fondness; predilection: formerly followed by of, now usually by for.
23. n. In esthetics, the faculty of discerning with emotions of pleasure beauty, grace, congruity, proportion, symmetry, order, or whatever constitutes 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 perception of these qualities being attended with an emotion of pleasure.
24. n. Manner, with respect to what is pleasing, becoming, or in agreement with the rules of good behavior and social propriety; the pervading air, the choice of conditions and relations, and the general arrangement and treatment in any work of art, by which esthetic perception 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.
25. n. A small portion given as a sample; a morsel, bit, or sip tasted, eaten, or drunk; hence, generally, something perceived, experienced, enjoyed, or suffered.
26. n. Scent; odor; smell.
27. n. Synonyms Taste, Savor, Flavor, Smack. Taste is the general 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 flavor of one variety of apple is more marked or more palatable than that of another. Smack is a slight taste, or, figuratively, a faint smell, generally the result of something 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.
28. n. Taste, Sensibility. Taste is active, deciding, choosing, changing, arranging, etc.; sensibility is passive, the power to feel, susceptibility of impression, as from the beautiful.
29. n. Taste, Judgment. As compared with judgment, taste always implies esthetic sensibility, a sense of the beautiful, and a power of choosing, 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.
30. n. Narrow thin silk ribbon.

Wiktionary

1. n. One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals (Wikipedia).
2. n. countable and uncountable A person's implicit set of preferences, especially esthetic, though also culinary, sartorial, etc. (Wikipedia).
3. n. uncountable, figuratively A small amount of experience with something that gives a sense of its quality as a whole.
4. v. transitive To sample the flavor of something orally.
5. v. intransitive To have a taste.
6. v. To experience.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. obsolete To try by the touch; to handle.
2. v. 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.
3. v. To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
4. v. To become acquainted with by actual trial; to essay; to experience; to undergo.
5. v. To partake of; to participate in; -- usually with an implied sense of relish or pleasure.
6. v. To try food with the mouth; to eat or drink a little only; to try the flavor of anything.
7. v. 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.
8. v. To take sparingly.
9. v. To have perception, experience, or enjoyment; to partake.
10. n. The act of tasting; gustation.
11. n. 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.
12. n. (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.
13. n. Intellectual relish; liking; fondness; -- formerly with of, now with for.
14. n. 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.
15. n. Manner, with respect to what is pleasing, refined, or in accordance with good usage; style.
16. n. Essay; trial; experience; experiment.
17. n. A small portion given as a specimen; a little piece tasted or eaten; a bit.
18. n. A kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. experience briefly
2. n. the sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and throat convey information about the chemical composition of a soluble stimulus
3. n. a kind of sensing; distinguishing substances by means of the taste buds
4. v. distinguish flavors
5. v. take a sample of
6. n. a small amount eaten or drunk
7. v. have flavor; taste of something
8. v. have a distinctive or characteristic taste
9. v. perceive by the sense of taste
10. n. the faculty of distinguishing sweet, sour, bitter, and salty properties in the mouth
11. n. a strong liking
12. n. delicate discrimination (especially of aesthetic values)
13. n. a brief experience of something