taste blood

Verb

taste blood (third-person singular simple present tastes blood, present participle tasting blood, simple past and past participle tasted blood)

1. (figuratively) To sense weakness in another, encouraging one to attack.
   • […] in those few moments I had proved myself a cyclist of such enormous cool, such dazzling technique, that I knew I would never again slow down for an advancing truck, veer to avoid a threatening limousine, or hesitate to plunge into the midst of a pedestrian phalanx. I had tasted blood, and now I...1968 January, Henry S. Resnik, “Passion on a Bicycle”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2022
   • But having tasted blood on the issue, the Obama campaign kept jabbing away.2012 July 14, Matt Williams, Ewen MacAskill, “Obama repeats attack on Romney as 'pioneer of outsourcing'”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2018
2. (figuratively) To press home an advantage in a debate, etc.
3. (broadly, figuratively) To take pleasure in something new.