flavor definition | Dictionary.com

fla⋅vor

[fley-ver]

–noun

1.	taste, esp. the distinctive taste of something as it is experienced in the mouth.

2.	a substance or extract that provides a particular taste; flavoring.

3.	the characteristic quality of a thing: He captured the flavor of the experience in his book.

4.	a particular quality noticeable in a thing: language with a strong nautical flavor.

5.	Physics. any of the six labels given to the distinct kinds of quark: up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top.

6.	Archaic. smell, odor, or aroma.

–verb (used with object)

7.	to give flavor to (something).

Also, especially British, flavour.

Origin:
1300–50; ME < MF fla(o)ur < LL *flātor stench, breath, alter. of L flātus a blowing, breathing, (see flatus ), perh. with -or of fētor fetor

Related forms:

fla⋅vor⋅less, adjective

Synonyms:
1. See taste. 2. seasoning. 3. essence, spirit.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To flavor

fla·vor (flā'vər)

Distinctive taste; savor: a flavor of smoke in bacon. See Synonyms at taste.
A distinctive yet intangible quality felt to be characteristic of a given thing: "What matters in literature . . . is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor or color of a particular human suffering" (Harold Bloom).
A flavoring: contains no artificial flavors.
Physics Any of six classifications of quark varieties (up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom), distinguished by mass and electric charge.
Archaic Aroma; fragrance.

tr.v. fla·vored, fla·vor·ing, fla·vors
To give flavor to.

[Middle English flavour, aroma, from Old French flaor, from Vulgar Latin *flātor, from Latin flāre, to blow; see bhlē- in Indo-European roots.]
fla'vor·er n., fla'vor·less adj., fla'vor·ous (-əs), fla'vor·some (-səm) adj., fla'vor·y adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Flavor

Fla"vor\, n. [OF. fleur, flaur (two syllables), odor, cf. F. fleurer to emit an odor, It. flatore a bad odor, prob. fr. L. flare to bow, whence the sense of exhalation. Cf. Blow.] [Written also flavour.]

1. That quality of anything which affects the smell; odor; fragrances; as, the flavor of a rose.

2. That quality of anything which affects the taste; that quality which gratifies the palate; relish; zest; savor; as, the flavor of food or drink.

3. That which imparts to anything a peculiar odor or taste, gratifying to the sense of smell, or the nicer perceptions of the palate; a substance which flavors.

4. That quality which gives character to any of the productions of literature or the fine arts.

Flavor

Fla"vor\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flavored; p. pr. & vb. n. Flavoring.] To give flavor to; to add something (as salt or a spice) to, to give character or zest.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : flavor

Spanish: sabor,

German: der Geschmack,

Japanese: 味

More Translations »

flavor

n.
1. [common] Variety, type, kind. "DDT commands come in two flavors." "These lights come in two flavors, big red ones and small green ones." "Linux is a flavor of Unix" See vanilla.
2. The attribute that causes something to be flavorful. Usually used in the phrase "yields additional flavor". "This convention yields additional flavor by allowing one to print text either right-side-up or upside-down." See vanilla. This usage was certainly reinforced by the terminology of quantum chromodynamics, in which quarks (the constituents of, e.g., protons) come in six flavors (up, down, strange, charm, top, bottom) and three colors (red, blue, green) -- however, hackish use of `flavor' at MIT predated QCD.
3. The term for `class' (in the object-oriented sense) in the LISP Machine Flavors system. Though the Flavors design has been superseded (notably by the Common LISP CLOS facility), the term `flavor' is still used as a general synonym for `class' by some LISP hackers.

Jargon File 4.2.0
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flavor

c.1300, "a smell, odor," from O.Fr. flaour "smell, odor," from V.L. flator "odor," lit. "that which blows," from L. flator "blower," from flare "to blow, puff," which is cognate with O.E. blawan (see blow (v.1)). The same V.L. source produced O.It. fiatore "a bad odor." Sense of "taste, savor" is 1697, originally "the element in taste which depends on the sense of smell." The -v- is perhaps from infl. of savor.

Main Entry: ¹fla·vor
Variant: or chiefly British fla·vour /'flA-v&r/
Function: noun
1 a : the qualityof something that affects the sense of taste flavor to food> b : the blend of taste and smell sensations evoked by a substance in the mouth flavor of ripe fruit>
2 : a substance that flavors —fla·vored or chiefly British fla·voured /-v&rd/ adjective

Main Entry: ²flavor
Variant: or chiefly British fla·vour
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: fla·vored or chieflyBritish fla·voured; fla·vor·ing or chiefly British fla·vour·ing /'flAv-(&-)ri[ng]/
: to give or addflavor to

flavor (flā'vər) Pronunciation Key
Any of six classifications of quark varieties, distinguished by mass and electric charge. The flavors have the names up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom. Protons in atomic nuclei are composed of two up quarks and one down quark, while neutrons consist of one up quark and two down quarks. The flavor of a quark may be changed in interactions involving the weak force.

flavor spelling
US spelling of "flavour".
[The Jargon File]
(1997-03-18)

flavor

in particle physics, property that distinguishes different members in the two groups of basic building blocks of matter, the quarks and the leptons. There are six flavours of subatomic particle within each of these two groups: six leptons (the electron, the muon, the tau, the electron-neutrino, the muon-neutrino, and the tau-neutrino), and six quarks (designated up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom).

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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