tasting

Pluraltastings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The act of sampling a bit of food or drink by mouth to judge its flavor.

   The wine tasting began with three crisp whites from the valley.

   After a careful tasting, the judge ranked the regional cheeses.

   Similarsampling

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A small portion of food or drink, enough to sample but not to fill.

   The waiter brought a tasting of the new olive oil to start the meal.

   Each plate held only a tasting of the season's best produce.

   Similartaste, sample, morsel

   Note

   Here the name of an act has become the name of a portion. The word is taste plus the -ing that turns verbs into nouns, already formed in Middle English as tastynge. What began as the sampling came to mean the sample itself. It counts like any ordinary noun: a tasting of olive oil, several tastings. Its sense of a portion grew from the act of sampling.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of taste.

   The chef kept tasting the sauce as it simmered on the stove.

   Tasting wine professionally takes years of careful training.

   Note

   The verb form comes down a separate line from the noun: Middle English tastinge, built with the participle ending rather than the noun-making one. After be or keep it marks ongoing action, as in kept tasting the sauce. As a gerund it still takes an object after it, as in tasting wine, whereas the noun puts the thing first: a wine tasting. It also carries the figurative sense 'experience', as in tasting success.

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