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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
palate
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cleft palate
soft palate
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
cleft
▪ Once here he will have an operation to repair a cleft palate by plastic surgeon Charles Viva.
▪ Katya was born with a bilateral hare lip and cleft palate.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Fresh tomatoes make the sandwich more pleasing to the palate.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Diaz's food is as scrumptious to the palate as the bank lobby is beautiful to behold.
▪ The palate is clean, with harmonious fruit and acidity.
▪ The verb is longer but unambiguous, a demonstrative moment as the tongue flicks anxiously away from the palate to release the vowel.
▪ They're versatile, consistently good and - to almost every palate - delicious.
▪ They may also feel their eyes, nose or palate itching.
▪ This aesthetic presentation is a very nice touch in a meal already replete with interesting tastes dancing merrily across your palate.
▪ Trust your own palate and your own sensibility.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Palate

Palate \Pal"ate\, n. [L. palatum: cf. F. palais, Of. also palat.]

  1. (Anat.) The roof of the mouth.

    Note: The fixed portion, or palate proper, supported by the maxillary and palatine bones, is called the hard palate to distinguish it from the membranous and muscular curtain which separates the cavity of the mouth from the pharynx and is called the soft palate, or velum.

  2. Relish; taste; liking; -- a sense originating in the mistaken notion that the palate is the organ of taste.

    Hard task! to hit the palate of such guests.
    --Pope.

  3. Fig.: Mental relish; intellectual taste.
    --T. Baker.

  4. (Bot.) A projection in the throat of such flowers as the snapdragon.

Palate

Palate \Pal"ate\, v. t. To perceive by the taste. [Obs.]
--Shak.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
palate

late 14c., "roof of the mouth," from Old French palat and directly from Latin palatum "roof of the mouth," perhaps of Etruscan origin [Klein]. Popularly considered the seat of taste, hence transferred meaning "sense of taste" (late 14c.), which also was in classical Latin. Related: Palatal; palatalize.

Wiktionary
palate

n. 1 (context anatomy English) The roof of the mouth; the uraniscus. 2 The sense of taste. 3 (context figuratively English) relish; taste; liking (from the mistaken notion that the palate is the organ of taste) 4 (context figuratively English) Mental relish; intellectual taste. 5 (context botany English) A projection in the throat of such flowers as the snapdragon. vb. (context nonstandard English) To relish; to find palatable.

WordNet
palate

n. the upper surface of the mouth that separates the oral and nasal cavities [syn: roof of the mouth]

Wikipedia
Palate

The palate is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but, in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separate. The palate is divided into two parts, the anterior bony hard palate, and the posterior fleshy soft palate (or velum).

Palate (bones)

The Palate Bones (palatum, the palate) are situated at the back part of the nasal fossae: they are wedged in between the superior maxillary bones and the pterygoid processes of the sphenoid. Each bone assists in the formation of three cavities: the floor and outer wall of the nose, the roof of the mouth, and the floor of the orbit, and enters into the formation of two fossae, the spheno-maxillary and pterygoid; and one fissure, the spheno-maxillary. In form the palate bone somewhat resembles the letter L, and may be divided into an inferior or horizontal plate and a superior or vertical plate.

Usage examples of "palate".

She sat cross-legged on a cushion in front of him, dipping into a dozen bowls, dishes, plates, and feeding him with balls that exploded in a pink glow inside his stomach, others that cooled and dulcified his palate.

If his own remaining years were to pass in moderate tranquility, if his heir was to be unharassed by fraternal cares, if the bouquet of the Dromio wines and the pile of the Dromio carpets were to regain that excellence which would come only from the superintendence of a eupeptic palate and untroubled eye, then it was essential that the late decisive action of Lady Dromio should be met by countermeasures of a like decisiveness.

Mediterranean palate, he brought them out with a clarity, a euphony, one might almost say a plasticity, that was truly refreshing.

FORM Through the lowering of the pillars of the fauces, which is the same as raising the soft palate, the outflowing breath is divided into two parts.

When the soft palate is raised high behind the nose, the pillars of the fauces are lowered, and this frees the way for the main stream of breath to the head cavities.

The pillars of the fauces must necessarily be relaxed by this action of the soft palate.

SECTION XIX EXTENSION OF THE COMPASS AND EQUALIZATION OF REGISTERS The whole secret of both consists in the proper raising and lowering of the soft palate, and the pillars of the fauces connected with it.

The larynx must rise and descend unimpeded by the tongue, soft palate and pillars of the fauces rise and sink, the soft palate always able more or less to press close to the hard.

She parted her lips, her tongue brushed the tip of his and a shiver ran down her spine as the taste of aged Scotch and Fayne dazzled her palate.

But once it has done its magic in the frying pan and on our palate, it simply disappears down the drain.

All were speaking with horrible goitrous voices as if they had cleft palates, and the husband was hoarse with fury.

It was as if, by some act of retrospective gustation possible to the initiate, he was recalling the tang of that bottle to his palate.

We had had no meat for dinner, and my delicate palate was not oversatisfied.

Lorraine, caesar salad with arugula, sangria and similar enticements to the sophisticated palates of prosperous out of town visitors where hoagies and a Bud by local custom had hitherto prevailed.

Is it because a liquorish palate, or a sweet-tooth, as they call it, is not consistent with the sanctity of his character?