Sentence is that. "He drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard."
I read this sentence couple of times. But I didn't get what "lingering on the taste" means.
6
-
2I means he did not swallow each mouthful right away, but let it roll around his mouth first, to savour its flavour. Similarly if you are passing a shop with nice music playing, you might linger to enjoy the music.– Weather VaneCommented Jun 18, 2020 at 12:33
-
Besides the drinker lingering on the taste, we can also speak of the taste lingering (with or without an explicit preposition-based adverbial clause, such as ...on the tongue, ...in his mouth). Which makes linger significantly different to savour (the drinker can savour the taste, but we can't speak of the taste savouring anything, even though it can certainly linger).– FumbleFingersCommented Jun 18, 2020 at 12:55
-
Note that most "lingerings" are bad (or at the very least, "bittersweet, poignant"). The cited example is a relatively uncommon context where the lingering concerns a pleasant experience, but you should be careful about extending the verb to other contexts where the "negative, unpleasant" associations might have an unwanted effect.– FumbleFingersCommented Jun 18, 2020 at 13:01
-
I have had a very large number of pleasant lingerings in my life, so many that I have to disagree that most are bad.– Michael HarveyCommented Jun 18, 2020 at 14:12
-
It's a less common version of the more common the taste lingering on his tongue. Generally, taste lingers (somewhere). And while he's lingering on, with nothing else, is fine, (someone) lingering on (something) is uncommon and, at least to me, sounds strange.– Jason BassfordCommented Jun 18, 2020 at 20:29
|
Show 1 more comment
1 Answer
Linger means "spend a long time (a longer time than needed) in a place or doing something".
He is drinking something, perhaps wine, and is lingering by drinking it more slowly then one would normally, to completely enjoy the taste of the wine.
