Foretaste

noun, verb

noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A taste beforehand.
  2. 2
    an early limited awareness of something yet to occur wordnet
  3. 3
    A sample taken in anticipation; an experience undergone in advance.

    "When she sang in the kirk, folk have told me that they had a foretaste of the musick of the New Jerusalem, and when she came in by the village of Caulds old men stottered to their doors to look at her."

Verb
  1. 1
    To taste beforehand. transitive
  2. 2
    To taste before possession; have previous experience of; enjoy by anticipation. transitive
  3. 3
    To taste before another. transitive

    "[...] foretast'd fruit, Profan'd first by the serpent [...]"

Synonyms

All synonyms
antepastanticipateantipastoaperitifappetizercanape

Example

More examples

"Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English fortaste, equivalent to fore- + taste (noun).

Etymology 2

From Middle English fortasten, equivalent to fore- + taste (verb).

Related phrases

in advance

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.