Also 5 fortaste. [f. FORE- pref. + TASTE v.]
1. trans. To taste beforehand, have a foretaste of.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. xviii. Þi blisse & þy felicite; not suche as is seen & preised of folisshe louers of þis worlde, but suche as gode true cristen men abidin, & spiritual men fortastiþ, whos conuersation is in heuene.
1526. [see the vbl. sb.].
a. 1711. Ken, Preparatives, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 92.
| Saints thus Celestial Joys fore-taste, | |
| And when their vital Sprits waste. |
1834. Good, Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 395. Reviving the doctrine of Aristotle, and the Peripatetics, which was so ably controverted by the Epicureans, who, foretasting the spirit of the Lavoisierian system, strenuously contended that it [heat] was a substance sui generis.
2. ‘To taste before another’ (J.).
1667. [see FORETASTED ppl. a.].
Hence Foretasted ppl. a.; Foretasting vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Also Foretaster.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 280 b. The foretastynges of ye glory of heuen.
1632. Sherwood, A foretaster, preguste.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 929.
| Foretasted Fruit | |
| Profan’d first by the Serpent, by him first | |
| Made common and unhallowd ere our taste. |
a. 1711. Ken, Hymn. Evang., Poet. Wks. 1721, I. 74.
| Give me … | |
| Of heav’nly Joys a sweet foretasting View, | |
| That I on Earth may only Heav’n pursue. |
