# tease

Pronunciation: say "TEEZ" /tiːz/

## Verb

1. To make fun of someone, either cruelly or affectionately and playfully.
   - Simple: To make jokes about someone or laugh at them, in a friendly or unkind way.
   - _She loves to tease her husband about his terrible sense of direction._
   - _Classmates teased him mercilessly about his stutter all through middle school._
2. To provoke, disturb, or annoy someone.
   - Simple: To bother or annoy a person or animal on purpose.
   - _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._
3. To show or hint at something that is coming, by way of a short preview. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To give a small hint about something that is coming soon.
   - _The studio teased the sequel in a brief post-credits scene._
   - _Game developers like to tease upcoming features months before release._
4. To excite someone sexually on purpose while having no intention of satisfying that desire.
   - Simple: To make someone feel sexual desire on purpose, without planning to do anything more.
   - _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._
5. To tempt or entice someone.
   - Simple: To get someone interested by offering something they want.
   - _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._
9. To comb hair backward from the ends toward the roots so that it stands up and looks fuller.
   - Simple: To comb hair the wrong way, toward the head, so it looks bigger.
   - _In the eighties, many women teased their bangs high above their foreheads._
   - _Stylists tease the roots to add volume to fine hair._
10. To influence or control someone's behavior, especially by irritating them again and again.
   - Simple: To get someone to do something by bothering 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._
11. To loosen and draw apart the individual fibers in a mass of fibrous material.
   - Simple: To pull apart the fine threads in a material like wool.
   - _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._
12. To comb a material, originally with teasels, so that its fibers all lie in one direction.
   - Simple: To comb wool or cloth so that all the threads lie the same way.
   - _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._

## Noun

6. A person who makes a habit of teasing others.
   - Simple: Someone who likes to joke about other people or bother them for fun.
   - _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._
7. Someone who deliberately excites sexual interest in others, usually men, but has no intention of following through.
   - Simple: A person who makes others feel sexual desire on purpose but does not want to go further.
   - _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._
8. A single instance of teasing someone.
   - Simple: One time when someone teases another person.
   - _The coach's tease about his slow start drew laughs from the whole team._
   - _She gave him a gentle tease about his new mustache._

## Origin

From Middle English tesen, from Old English tǣsan ("to tease"), from Proto-West Germanic *taisijan ("to separate, tug, shred").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tease (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).