taste blood

Definitions

1. To sense weakness in another, encouraging one to attack.
   figuratively
2. To press home an advantage in a debate, etc.
   figuratively
3. To take pleasure in something new.
   broadly, figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“[…] in those few moments I had proved myself a cyclist of such enormous cool, such dazzling technique, that I knew I would never again slow down for an advancing truck, veer to avoid⟳ a threatening limousine, or hesitate to plunge into the midst of a pedestrian phalanx. I had tasted blood, and now I knew what all those pillar-legged hostelers felt as they sat around their campfires, recalling the encounters and skirmishes of the day.”

“But having tasted blood on the issue⟳, the Obama campaign kept jabbing away.”

CEFR level