tease

Formsteases, teasing, teased

Pluralteases

1. 1
   make funverbtransitive

   To make fun of someone, either cruelly or affectionately and playfully.

   She loves to tease her husband about his terrible sense of direction.

   Classmates teased him mercilessly about his stutter all through middle school.

   Similarrazz

   Note

   Judith Martin drew the line between teasing and taunting in 1998: the ingredients are the same, she wrote, as with kissing and spitting, and only the emotion makes one pleasing and the other repellent. That is why the verb so often travels with a word that fixes the tone, such as gently, affectionately or mercilessly.

2. 2
   annoyverbtransitive

   To provoke, disturb, or annoy someone.

   Her little brother teased her the whole drive by kicking the back of her seat.

   Visitors who tease the animals will be asked to leave the zoo.

   Similarride

   Oppositesoothe, placate

   Note

   Provocation is the point here, not mockery: in Robert W. Chambers's The Younger Set (1907) a man argues a contrary taste "to tease her and arouse her to combat." Much earlier, Samuel Butler's Hudibras sets the force of reason against "indefatigable teasing" as a way of getting one's way.

3. 3
   previewverbcolloquialtransitive

   To show or hint at something that is coming, by way of a short preview.

   The studio teased the sequel in a brief post-credits scene.

   Game developers like to tease upcoming features months before release.

   Similarpreview, trail, foreshadow

4. 4
   lead on (sexually)verbtransitive

   To excite someone sexually on purpose while having no intention of satisfying that desire.

   He accused her of teasing him all night with no intention of going home with him.

   She would tease him across the table and then leave with her friends.

   Similartantalize

   Note

   Teasing can be the pleasure itself rather than a complaint: Rosenjoy, writing in Gay Community News in 1976, names being "tied down and teased and teased" as a favorite fantasy. Repetition marks this use, prolonging desire on purpose, while the blame-laden label belongs to the noun for such a person.

5. 5
   temptverbtransitive

   To tempt or entice someone.

   The smell of grilling onions teased customers in off the street.

   He hoped a few glowing reviews might tease readers into trying his first novel.

   Similartempt, entice, lure, draw, coax

   Oppositerepel, deter

   Note

   The coaxing can be tender: in Sheridan's The School for Scandal a husband wishes he could "teaze her into loving me tho' but a little." Where the nagging sense wears someone down, this one draws them in, and it often comes with into or in, as when a smell teases customers in off the street.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A person who makes a habit of teasing others.

   Her grandfather was a gentle tease who pretended every year to forget her birthday.

   The office teases never let him forget the day he wore two different shoes.

   Similarjoker, kidder

7. 7
   sexual flirtnouncountable

   Someone who deliberately excites sexual interest in others, usually men, but has no intention of following through.

   He dismissed her as a tease when she turned down his invitation upstairs.

   The novel's narrator admits he called her a tease to hide his own embarrassment.

   Note

   The noun usually comes as a charge from someone who feels led on, and its vulgar compounds, cocktease, cockteaser and prickteaser, sharpen the insult. Because it claims to know another person's intentions, it is safer to report the word than to use it of anyone yourself.

8. 8
   one jokenouncountable

   A single instance of teasing someone.

   The coach's tease about his slow start drew laughs from the whole team.

   She gave him a gentle tease about his new mustache.

   Similarjibe, dig, jest

9. 9
   puff up hairverbtransitive

   To comb hair backward from the ends toward the roots so that it stands up and looks fuller.

   In the eighties, many women teased their bangs high above their foreheads.

   Stylists tease the roots to add volume to fine hair.

   Similarbackcomb

10. 10
    nag intoverbtransitive

    To influence or control someone's behavior, especially by irritating them again and again.

    Children know exactly how to tease their parents into giving in.

    After a week of nagging, she finally teased her stubborn brother into apologizing.

    Similarbadger, pester, nag, coax

    Note

    Persistence is the method: the irritation is repeated until the other person gives way, usually in the frame tease someone into doing something, as when Macaulay writes of a man who let others tease him into acts against his strongest inclinations. Jane Austen spells it teazed in Emma, where a young woman in bad hands "may be teazed, and kept at a distance."

11. 11
    separate fibersverbtransitive

    To loosen and draw apart the individual fibers in a mass of fibrous material.

    Before spinning, tease the fleece to loosen any tangles and pick out bits of straw.

    The technician teased the muscle tissue apart with fine needles.

    Similarcard, comb, separate

    Note

    The hands-on sense is the word's oldest: its Proto-West Germanic ancestor meant "to separate, tug, shred," and Old English tǣsan carried that on. Spinners tease fleece and lab workers tease tissue, often with apart when the strands are pulled fully loose, and the picture of picking at something persists in the senses about people.

12. 12
    verbtransitive

    To comb a material, originally with teasels, so that its fibers all lie in one direction.

    Before the wool went to the spinners, workers teased it until every fiber lay in the same direction.

    Finishers tease the woven cloth so its surface fibers lie smoothly one way.

    Similarcomb, card

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