foretaste
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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foretastes,
present (3rd person singular)
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foretasted,
past participle, past
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foretasting
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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foretastesimple
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foretastessimple
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have foretastedperfect
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has foretastedperfect
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am foretastingprogressive
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are foretastingprogressive
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is foretastingprogressive
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have been foretastingperfect progressive
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has been foretastingperfect progressive
Past
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foretastedsimple
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had foretastedperfect
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was foretastingprogressive
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were foretastingprogressive
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had been foretastingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of foretaste
First recorded in 1400–50, foretaste is from the late Middle English word fortaste. See fore-, taste
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That is a foretaste of what analysts say will be a growing pool of debt tied to data centers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2025
That applies whether you think the current troubles are just a blip or a foretaste of the job losses that technological changes are bringing to the industry, she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2024
“But if this a foretaste of the feast to come, then we’re in massive trouble.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2023
“A foretaste of the future,” said Petteri Taalas, the secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2023
There were application forms, twenty pages long, and thick, densely printed admission handbooks from Edinburgh and London whose methodical, exacting prose seemed to be a foretaste of a new kind of academic rigor.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
As spare and considered as their Morton Feldman score, these solos aren’t just foretastes of 1960s Judson Dance Theater; they could easily be the work of a present-day postmodernist like Beth Gill.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2022
These distant and prolonged separations seem like foretastes of death....
From Records of a Girlhood by Fanny Kemble
These aërial journeys may be foretastes of those we shall make after we are freed from the incumbrance of avoirdupois.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 11, September, 1858 by Various
"To him they are not shadows, but foretastes," said Meta.
From The Daisy chain, or Aspirations by Charlotte Mary Yonge
It was a festival day, and her soul felt all the glow of fervor and spiritual joy which at times wraps the pious spirit into foretastes of celestial happiness.
From Alvira, the Heroine of Vesuvius by A. J. (Augustine J.) O'Reilly
At the same time, Auburn University officials say the school is expected to maintain consistent undergraduate enrollment at about 25,000 students with no significant growth foretasted.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 10, 2019
Adam foretasted comfort for himself and his descendants.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Between night and noonday there has been the dawn, with its searching illumination, its thrill of faith, the rapture of self-sacrifice in which anchorite and martyr foretasted the joys of heaven.
From A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.) by Mrs. Sutherland Orr
For a moment, in the joy of anticipation, a strange light illuminated his face, his lips parted as in a foretasted wonder, and he forgot even to drop the hand he had just withdrawn.
From The Little City of Hope A Christmas Story by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
In that lonely little closet of his, Pierre foretasted all that this world hath either of praise or dispraise; and thus foretasting both goblets, anticipatingly hurled them both in its teeth.
From Pierre; or The Ambiguities by Herman Melville
In that lonely little closet of his, Pierre foretasted all that this world hath either of praise or dispraise; and thus foretasting both goblets, anticipatingly hurled them both in its teeth.
From Pierre; or The Ambiguities by Herman Melville
We need much humility, wisdom, and love to perform the functions of foreshadowing and foretasting heaven within us.
From Christian Science by Mark Twain
I have never committed a burglary, but since the moment when I creaked past the drawing-room door, foretasting the instant when it would open, my sympathies are dedicated to burglars.
From All on the Irish Shore Irish Sketches by E. Oe. (Edith Oenone) Somerville
She was already foretasting the dreariness of life without the critical, corrective, and withal stimulating presence of her elder child.
From Kildares of Storm by Eleanor Mercein Kelly
Instantly she knew, with that foretasting mind of hers, that the man peering over the policeman's shoulder and Johnny Two-Hawks had met somewhere that day.
From The Drums of Jeopardy by Harold MacGrath
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