savouring

Verb

savour (third-person singular simple present savours, present participle savouring, simple past and past participle savoured)

1. (UK, transitive) To detect (a flavour or taste, or food or drink); to taste; specifically, to enjoy or linger on (a flavour or taste, or food and drink); to relish.
   • He closed his eyes so he could really savour his dessert.
2. (UK, transitive) To give (food or drink) flavour; to flavour, to season.
   • What Flesh is fitting for Man to Eat, / Until our Herbs do savour the Meat?1719, Samuel Wilde, “[The Gard’ners Song.] The Second Part.”, in Thomas d’Urfey, compiler, Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive; […], volume IV, London: […] W. Pearson, for J[acob] Tonson, […]...
3. (UK, archaic, transitive) To detect (an aroma or smell, especially an appealing one); to smell.
   • VViſedome and goodnes, to the vild ſeeme vild, / Filths ſauor but themſelues, vvhat haue you done?c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […]...
4. (UK, figuratively, transitive) To enjoy (something) deeply or in a lingering manner; to appreciate, to delight in, to relish.
   • VVhẽ vvickednes vvas ſvvete in his mouthe, & he hid it vnder his tongue, / And ſauoured it, and vvolde not forſake it, but kept it cloſe in his mouth, / Then his meat in his bovvels vvas turned: the gall of aſpes vvas in the middes of hĩ [him].1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. […] (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: […] Rouland Hall, →OCLC, Iob XX:12–14, folio 228...
5. (UK, figuratively, transitive) To find (something) appealing; to appreciate, to like.
   • The man that coueteth gold, conceiueth not goodneſſe, his appetite is of the earth, and thoſe that are earthly minded, ſauour not the things that are of God.1584, Thomas Lodge, An Alarum against Usurers. […], London: […] T[homas] Este, for Sampson Clarke, […], →OCLC, folio 19, recto

   Synonyms:

   care for

6. (UK, archaic, figuratively, transitive) To possess (a particular, often negative, quality), especially a small amount of it; to be redolent or suggestive of (something).
   • No more be mention'd then of violence / Againſt our ſelves, and vvilful barrenneſs, / That cuts us off from hope, and ſavours onely / Rancor and pride, impatience and deſpite, / Reluctance againſt God and his juſt yoke / Laid on our Necks.1674, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 282

See all 27 meanings of savour

Noun

savoring (plural savorings)

1. The act by which something is savored.
   • Mightn't one even begin to understand the manifold woes, predicaments, and estrangements of man—and the delights and savorings and homecomings—as nothing more nor less than the variables of the Delta phenomenon […]1975, Walker Percy, The Message in the Bottle […]