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foretaste

[noun fawr-teyst, fohr-; verb fawr-teyst, fohr-]
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noun
  1. a slight and partial experience, knowledge, or taste of something to come in the future; anticipation.
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verb (used with object), fore·tast·ed, fore·tast·ing.
  1. to have some advance experience or knowledge of (something to come).
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Origin of foretaste

First recorded in 1400–50, foretaste is from the late Middle English word fortaste. See fore-, taste
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for foretaste

Historical Examples

  • Here, in the middle of Paris, they found a foretaste of the country.

    The Fat and the Thin

    Emile Zola

  • This prayer is the commencement, the foretaste, of Contemplation.

    The Prodigal Returns

    Lilian Staveley

  • There was frost on the grass that morning, a foretaste of winter in the sharp wind.

  • The quietness that came over me was like a foretaste of annihilation.

    The Shadow-Line

    Joseph Conrad

  • As it was, we had but a foretaste and an earnest of that bliss which it was in our power to procure.

    The Memoires of Casanova, Complete

    Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

British Dictionary definitions for foretaste

foretaste

noun (ˈfɔːˌteɪst)
  1. an early but limited experience or awareness of something to come
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verb (fɔːˈteɪst)
  1. (tr) to have a foretaste of
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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

Word Origin and History for foretaste

n.

early 15c., from fore- + taste (n.). As a verb, from mid-15c.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper