a. Now colloq. and dial. [f. TASTE sb.1 + -Y.]
1. Pleasing to the taste; appetizing, savory.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 203. Sowre herbs, with which that tastie meat, the paschall lambe … was to be eaten.
1795. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., IV. 220. A tasty bird, that pheasant.
1849. Curzon, Visits Monast., 144. A famous pie, or pilau, with rice and a tasty sauce.
a. 1862. Buckle, Misc. Wks. (1872), I. 381. The arts of compounding a pleasant pudding or combining a tasty pie.
1900. Katharine Lee Bates, Spanish Highways & Byways, xi. 153. The boy … occasionally disengaging one hand or the other to plunge it into the pot after a tasty morsel.
b. fig. Pleasant, agreeable, attractive.
1796. Mrs. M. Robinson, Angelina, III. 179. ‘Here you are, my tasty ones!’ exclaimed Sir Edward. ‘Why, you played us a trick.’
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 201. Pausing o’er each tasty flower.
2. Characterized by or displaying good taste; tasteful, elegant. Now rare.
1762. Goldsm., Cit. World, lxxvii. [The silk] is at once rich, tasty, and quite the thing.
1784. New Spectator, No. 16. 5. [Ranelagh] This region of taste was visited on Friday evening, by a great number of tasty people indeed.
1813. J. C. Hobhouse, Journey (ed. 2), 501. The head-dress of the younger girls is tasty; their hair falls down their backs in profusion.
1821. Coleridge, in Blackw. Mag., X. 254. I wish I could find a more familiar word than aesthetic.… To be sure, there is tasty; but that has been long ago emasculated for all unworthy uses by milliners, tailors, and … dandies.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, xxiv. My … waistcoat … is a much more tasty thing than these gaudy ready-made articles.
3. Comb., as tasty-looking.
1840. E. Newman, in Mag. Nat. Hist., IV. 117. The river or creek below Cork is very pretty, the hilly banks being loaded with luxuriant shrubberies and tasty-looking houses.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, x. (1880), 375. This is a very tasty-looking fly.
1888. F. Cowper, Capt. of Wight (1889), 50. Some tasty-looking rolls, fresh butter, and cheese.
