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distaste

American  
[dis-teyst] / dɪsˈteɪst /

noun

  1. dislike; disinclination.

    Synonyms:
    disgust, repugnance, aversion
  2. dislike for food or drink.


verb (used with object)

  • distastes,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • distasted,
    past participle,  past
  • distasting
    present participle
  1. Archaic. to dislike.

distaste British  
/ dɪsˈteɪst /

noun

  1. (often foll by for) an absence of pleasure (in); dislike (of); aversion (to)

    to look at someone with distaste

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) an archaic word for dislike

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Synonym Usage

See dislike.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of distaste

First recorded in 1580–90; dis- 1 + taste

Explanation

When you're disgusted by something, or simply dislike it, you have a distaste for it. You might have such a distaste for the smell of meat cooking that you only go to vegetarian restaurants. Some people have a distaste for living in the suburbs, while others feel distaste at the thought of living packed into a large city with millions of other people. You might have a distaste for the sport of boxing, while your boxing-loving cousin's distaste is for ice dancing and synchronized swimming. When something's just not your taste — you don't care for it — you can say you have a distaste for it.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing distaste

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:

Crowe’s temperament, blunt demeanor and distaste for certain aspects of “celebrity” have long been fodder for news coverage.

From Los Angeles Times May 26, 2026

“The sooner we snap out of our distaste for genetic modification, the better.”

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 17, 2026

Its social contract is built on uncompromising moral standards, an emphasis on resolute social justice, and, of course, a distaste for those who fail to properly share those values.

From Slate Apr. 13, 2026

Amaya Espinal, the winner of season 7 who was nicknamed "Amaya Papaya", expressed her distaste at the AI fruit re-creation of the show she starred in just last year.

From BBC Mar. 28, 2026

“Let him try. He’ll be weakened. And my son here, Nico—” Hades looked at him with distaste.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

The stoops of brownstone Brooklyn, on which residents routinely leave freebies for passers-by, are a reliable metric of current literary tastes — and distastes.

From New York Times Apr. 23, 2023

With no one else's tastes or distastes or allergies to consider, I discovered new rhythms and flavors.

From Salon Dec. 30, 2022

Surveys of previous generations found that people tended to share both their preferences and vehement distastes with other members of their social classes and backgrounds.

From Slate Feb. 25, 2020

Given your expressed distastes, I will point you toward monosyllabic denotations of cylindrical solidity.

From Slate Oct. 15, 2014

In the midst of these various distastes and discomforts, some interest was raised in the mind of Juliet, for one of her young fellow-work-women.

From The Wanderer (Volume 3 of 5) or, Female Difficulties by Fanny Burney

That you sent no lading in the ship is wonderfull, and worthily distasted.

From Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' From the Original Manuscript. With a Report of the Proceedings Incident to the Return of the Manuscript to Massachusetts by William Bradford

Nor did he become an archer of the Queen's Body-Guard, which is the Chiltern Hundreds of the distasted golfer.

From Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson

No trial; no condemnation; no execution; and that which I then most distasted, no definite knowledge of what should be my fate.

From With Ring of Shield by Knox Magee

The Mayflower had brought no profitable cargo back to England, he complained, an omission which was "wonderful and worthily distasted."

From The Old Coast Road From Boston to Plymouth by Agnes Rothery

He paused and added, "To be quite honest, I dare say I distasted the job and shirked it."

From Lady Good-for-Nothing by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

But now behold another grub-hunter, which, distasting mud, has discovered an unworked mine in the trunks of trees.

From Concerning Animals and Other Matters by Edward Hamilton Aitken

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