The bigger you are...

[dogscoff]

Ron_Lugge said:
Um... "bitter taste of defeat" is a common phrase; as such hearing it isn't too unreasonable. I mean, you can't really taste defeat so much as it is a bitter thing to deal with, and bitter is a taste... am I making any sense?

Yeah I know. My point is that your characters hears the bitter taste of defeat. You're mixing metaphors.

You either hear the sound of defeat, or you taste the flavour of defeat. You don't hear the taste, or taste the sound, or see the smell and so on.