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taster

American  
[tey-ster] / ˈteɪ stər /

noun

  1. a person who tastes, especially one skilled in distinguishing the qualities of liquors, tea, etc., by the taste.

  2. a container for taking samples or tasting.

  3. a wide shallow cup, usually metal, for holding wine to be tasted, as by a professional taster.

  4. a person employed or ordered to taste the food and drink prepared for a king, dictator, etc., to ascertain the presence of poison.

  5. Genetics. a person able to taste phenylthiourea or some other test substance.

taster British  
/ ˈteɪstə /

noun

  1. a person who samples food or drink for quality

  2. any device used in tasting or sampling

  3. a person employed, esp formerly, to taste food and drink prepared for a king, etc, to test for poison

  4. a sample or preview of a product, experience, etc, intended to stimulate interest in the product, experience, etc, itself

    the single serves as a taster for the band's new album
"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

Other Word Forms

  • pretaster noun

Etymology

Origin of taster

1350–1400; Middle English tastour < Anglo-French. See taste, -er 1

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.

Despite putting himself out there by going to taster sessions for various societies, he couldn't find his people.

From BBC • Nov. 1, 2025

"I know what to expect with the audience... it was a bit of a taster run."

From BBC • Sep. 15, 2025

Parents told the BBC they paid between £180 and £975 for blocks of one-to-one coaching sessions and that often just one or two were delivered - including a free taster.

From BBC • Nov. 20, 2024

Kelly Tanner from Blackwood, Caerphilly, arranged for her nine-year old "football-mad" daughter Elen to have a taster session, before she then paid £300 for 10 sessions.

From BBC • Nov. 20, 2024

Every product in the supermarket can be analyzed along these lines, and after a taster has worked with these scales for years, they become embedded in the taster’s unconscious.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.