Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TAR-WA-TER, n. [tar and water.]

A cold infusion of tar, used as a medicine. Cyc.

TASK, n. [Fr. tache; W. tasg, a bond, a pledge, that which is settled or agreed to be done, a job, a task; Gaelic and Ir. tasg, task, and tasgaire, a slave; It. tassa. The sense is that which is set or fixed, from throwing or putting on.]

1. Business imposed by another, often a definite quantity or amount of labor. Each man has his task. When he has performed his task, his time is his own. Exod. v.
2. Business; employment. His mental powers were equal to greater tasks. Atterbury.
3. Burdensome employment. To take to task, to reprove; to reprimand; as, to take one to task for idleness. Addison.

TASK, v.t. [W. tasgu, to bind, to rate, to task, to spring, start, leap back, to urge.]

1. To impose a task; to assign to one a definite amount of business or labor.
2. To burden with some employment; to require to perform. There task thy maids, and exercise the loom. Dryden.

TASK-ED, pp.

Required to perform something.

TASK-ER, n.

One that imposes a task.

TASK-ING, ppr.

Imposing a task on; requiring to perform.

TASK-MAS-TER, n. [task and master.]

1. One who imposes a task, or burdens with labor. Sinful propensities and appetites are men's most unrelenting taskmasters. They condemn us to unceasing drudgery, and reward us with pain, remorse and poverty. Next to our sinful propensities, fashion is the most oppressive taskmaster.
2. One whose office is to assign tasks to others. Exod i. iii.

TAS'SEL, n. [W. tasel, a sash, a bandage, a fringe, a tassel; tasiaw, to tie; tas, that binds or hems in; It. tassello, the collar of a cloke.]

1. A sort of pendent ornament, attached to the corners of cushions, to curtains and the like, ending in loose threads.
2. A small ribin of silk sewed to a book, to be put between the leaves. Cyc.
3. In building, tassels are the pieces of boards that lie under the mantle-tree.
4. A bur. [See Teasel.]
5. A male hawk; properly terzol, It. terzuolo.

TAS'SEL-ED, a.

Furnished or adorned with tassels; as, the tasseled horn. Milton.

TAS'SES, n. [plur.]

Armor for the thighs; appendages to the ancient corslet, consisting of skirts of iron that covered the thighs. They were fastened to the cuirass with hooks.

TAST-A-BLE, a. [from taste.]

That may be tasted; savory; relishing.

TASTE, n.

1. The act of tasting; gustation. Milton.
2. 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.
3. The sense by which we perceive the relish of a thing. This sense appears to reside in the tongue or its papillæ. Men have a great variety of tastes. In the influenza of 1790, the taste, for some days, was entirely extinguished.
4. Intellectual relish; as, he had no taste of true glory. Addison. I have no taste / Of popular applause. Dryden. 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.
5. 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. Gerard.
6. Style; manner, with respect to what is pleasing; as, a poem or music composed in good taste. Cyc.
7. Essay; trial; experiment. [Not in use.] Shak.
8. A small portion given as a specimen.
9. A bit; a little piece tasted or eaten.

TASTE, v.i.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. To distinguish intellectually. Scholars, when good sense describing, / Call it tasting and imbibing. Swift.
4. To try the relish of any thing. Taste of the fruits; taste for yourself.
5. 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. Shak.
6. To experience; to have perception of. The valiant never taste of death but once. Shak.
7. To take to be enjoyed. Of nature's bounty men forbore to taste. Waller.
8. To enjoy sparingly. For age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours. Dryden.
9. To have the experience or enjoyment of. They who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and the good word of God. Heb. vi.

TASTE, v.t. [Fr. tâter, to feel; It. tastare; Norm. taster, to touch, to try; G. and D. tasten; Dan. tasser. The Dutch has toetsen, to touch, to try, to test; Dan. taster and, to attack or assault. This shows that the primary sense is to thrust or drive; allied perhaps to dash; hence to strike, to touch, to bring one thing in contact with another.]

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. xiv.
4. To essay first. Dryden.
5. To have pleasure from. Carew.
6. To experience; to feel; to undergo. That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Heb. ii.
7. To relish intellectually; to enjoy. Thou, Adam, wilt taste no pleasure. Milton.
8. To experience by shedding, as blood. When Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse. Gibbon.

TAST-ED, pp.

Perceived by the organs of taste; experienced.

TASTE-FUL, a.

1. Having a high relish; savory; as, tasteful herbs. Pope.
2. Having good taste.

TASTE-FUL-LY, adv.

With good taste.

TASTE-FUL-NESS, n.

The state of being tasteful.

TASTE-LESS, a.

1. Having no taste; insipid; as, tasteless fruit.
2. Having no power of giving pleasure; as, tasteless amusements.
3. Having no power to perceive taste. [Not used.]
4. Having no intellectual gust. [Little used.]

TASTE-LESS-LY, adv.

In a tasteless manner.

TASTE-LESS-NESS, n.

1. Want of taste or relish; insipidness; as, the tastelessness of fruit.
2. Want of perception of taste. [Not in use.]
3. Want of intellectual relish. [Not in use.]

TAST-ER, n.

1. One who tastes.
2. One who first tastes food or liquor. Thy tutor be thy taster, e'er thou eat. Dryden.
3. A dram cup. Ainsworth.

TAST-I-LY, adv.

With good taste.

TAST-ING, n.

1. The act of perceiving by the tongue.
2. The sense by which we perceive or distinguish savors; or the perception of external objects through the instrumentality of the tongue or organs of taste. Tasto solo, in music, denotes that the passage should be performed with no other chords than unisons and octaves.

TAST-ING, ppr.

1. Perceiving by the tongue.
2. Trying; experiencing; enjoying or suffering.