Dictionary

gustate en · VERB

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin gustātus, perfect passive participle of gustō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Meanings

1. (literary, rare) To taste; to have a relish for.
   • Within gardens we have sat, / Gazing on a grassy plat, / With an ecstacy elate; / Gustating thy summer air, / With a joy we cannot share, / Looking on thy summer tree, / Offshoot of far Virgineé. 1897, Elwin Vyne, “To the Old Year Passing”, in Gather’d Fragments: Poems, new edition, London: Bertram Dobell, […], page 140:
   • These woful spirits, drenched with the sensuous elements of the life which they led on earth; selfish as they were then to the very inmost depths of their natures, rush with a reckless and gluttonous appetite into the tissues of unfortunately open constitutions, and exult in breathing, drinking in, gustating with a cruel and relentless ardour the sensations and odours of this mortal life once more. 1869, William Howitt, “Classical and Modern Notions of the Relations betwixt Matter and Spirit”, in The Spiritual Magazine, volume IV, London: James Burns, […], page 350:
   • Back from dentist, there lay yr. letter on my dressing table – best possible Restorative. I read it while gustating cautiously […] & gratefully swallowing the broth Mrs. O’C. had specially prepared for me. 1944 January 18, Ursula Bethell, “To Kathleen & Merlin Davies”, in Peter Whiteford, editor, Vibrant with Words: The Letters of Ursula Bethell, Wellington: Victoria University Press, published 2005, →ISBN, section VII (1944–1945), page 328:

Forms

Relateds

gust · gustation · degustate