relish
Meanings
- Flavour or taste; (countable) an instance of this.
- Followed by for: one's liking or taste for something; a fondness.
- A small amount; a tinge, a trace.
- Ability to taste or (figurative) enjoy.
- Particular quality; (countable) an instance of this; a characteristic or quality.
- Enjoyment of flavour or taste; (countable) an instance of this.
- Enjoyment of something pleasant; (countable) an instance of this.
- Appetizing or pleasant flavour or taste; (countable) an instance of this.
- Pleasant quality; (countable) an instance of this.
- A savoury dish or course of dishes, especially one accompanying rather than forming the main part of a meal; an appetizer, a side dish.
- A characteristic or quality which accompanies another thing.
- A condiment or sauce added to food for a spicy or tangy flavour; specifically, one made with chopped, pickled fruit or vegetables.
- To give (something) (a pleasant) flavour or taste; to make appetizing.
- To take delight or pleasure in (someone or oneself, or something).
- To eat or taste (drink, food, etc.).
- To provide (someone, or their appetite, mouth, stomach, etc.) with something appetizing or tasty.
- To appreciate or understand (something).
- To experience (something); also (rare), to feel (something).
- To have a particular opinion about (someone or something); to receive, to regard.
- To have a tinge or trace of (something).
- To provide (someone) with something delightful or pleasant; to delight, to gratify, to please.
- Followed by in: to take delight or pleasure.
- To have a particular (specifically, a pleasant) flavour or taste.
- To have a particular (specifically, a favourable) characteristic or quality.
- A projecting component.
- In a wooden frame: the projection or shoulder around, or at the side of, a tenon (“projecting member made to insert into a mortise”), used to strengthen a mortise-and-tenon joint.
- To add one or more relishes (noun etymology 2, noun sense 2) to (a tenon, piece of wood, etc.).
- A type of ornamentation comprising one or more trills.
- To sing (a song or tune); specifically, in a manner where there are tremulous changes of tone; to trill, to warble.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
The noun is a variant of release (“(obsolete) odour, scent”), from Middle English reles, relese (“odour, scent; taste; efficacy, power”), probably from Anglo-Norman reles, relais, or Old French reles, relais (“that which is left behind, remainder, residue”), from relaisser, relaschier (“to liberate, release; to relax”) (modern French relâcher), from Latin relaxāre, the present active infinitive of relaxō (“to stretch out or widen again, loosen, slacken; (figurative) to ease, relax”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again; back, backwards’) + laxō (“to release, undo; to relax”) (from laxus (“spacious, wide; loose, slack”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg- (“to slacken; to tire out”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). Doublet of release. The verb is derived from the noun.