tasty
Noun pluraltasties
Pluraltasties
- 1Pleasing in flavor; enjoyable to eat.
The chef prepared a tasty three-course meal for the guests.
Fresh herbs make even simple dishes much tastier.
Similardelicious, flavorful, appetizing, savory, delectable
Oppositedisgusting, unpalatable, distasteful
Note
The base sense, built in the plainest way English has: taste plus the adjective-making -y. The y turns to i before endings, giving tastier and tastiest, and the superlative sits comfortably in judgments like "the tastiest way" to serve something. Its everyday partner is delicious. Untasty exists as an opposite, but unpalatable or, in casual speech, yucky usually does the job.
- 2Attractive or appealing; of a person, sexually attractive.
Half the office thought the new intern was pretty tasty.
He pulled up in a seriously tasty sports car.
Similarsexy, attractive, hot, gorgeous, beautiful
Oppositeunattractive, ugly
Note
Slang that has moved from the tongue to the eye. Applied to things, it simply means appealing: The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders (1990) praises "a tasty tune." Applied to people, it means sexy, and it carries an appraising edge that can come across as crude. Keep it for casual talk among people who will take it in the spirit you intend.
- 3A delicious item of food; a treat.
The bakery counter was full of little tasties wrapped in wax paper.
She offered each child a tasty from the tray.
Similartreat, goody, tidbit, delicacy
Note
The adjective turned into a thing, and usually met in the plural, tasties. It tends to close a list rather than lead one: "other tasties too, olives and such," or pâté with "biscuits and various other tasties." The pattern "and other tasties" is its natural home, a light way to wave at an assortment of treats.
- 4Highly skilled and competent at something.
Their new midfielder is genuinely tasty on the ball.
He's a tasty mechanic who sorts any engine in minutes.
Similarskillful, handy, talented, useful
Oppositeuseless, hopeless, inept
Note
British informal praise for ability rather than looks or flavor: someone tasty in this sense is simply very good at what they do. The same register gives the word its menacing sense, so in British speech context does the sorting. When a skill is being admired, this is the meaning. When a person or a moment might turn ugly, it is the other.
- 5Liable to turn violent; threatening a confrontation.
The match turned tasty when rival fans clashed near the gate.
It got pretty tasty in the car park once tempers flared.
Similarugly, nasty, violent, heated
Note
British informal speech uses it for trouble about to start. The set phrase is "it all got a bit tasty," and the understatement does the work, as in James Robinson's The Larry Diaries (2011) and Craig Summers's Bodyguard (2012). Of a person, as in BBC News's "tasty geezer" (2014), it marks someone you would not want to cross.
Less common meanings
- 6Showing good taste; tasteful in style or arrangement.
The hostess received compliments on her tasty arrangement of the parlor.
we wait until the palace is half-way up, and then we pay some tasty architect to run us up an ornamental mud hovel, right against it
1840, Edgar Allan Poe, “Peter Pendulum, the Business Man”Note
Here taste means discernment rather than flavor, and the word once praised a display or a design as made with judgment. Edgar Allan Poe could still write of paying "some tasty architect" in 1840. The sense is now gone. A modern reader will hear food or the slang "attractive" meaning instead, so use tasteful when this is what you mean.
- 7A baked loaf of bread.
The errand boy carried a warm tasty wrapped in a cloth.
Each morning the housekeeper collected a tasty and a jug of milk.
Similarloaf
Note
Philippine English took this word from a brand rather than from flavor. Taystee, the bread of a now-defunct American company, became a generic name for a loaf, as trademarks sometimes do, and its spelling merged with the ordinary adjective's. The usage is dated, so expect to meet it in older speech and writing rather than at today's bakery counter.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "taste" plus the suffix "-y". The Philippine sense comes from a genericized trademark of the now-defunct American Taystee Bread Company.