tempting

1. 1
   adjective

   Attractive and appealing enough to make you want something.

   The job offer was tempting, with better pay and shorter hours.

   We found the dessert menu far too tempting to resist.

   Similarappealing, attractive, enticing, inviting

   Oppositeunappealing, unattractive, uninviting

   Note

   Writers often use it to introduce an idea: it is tempting to speculate, it is tempting to conclude. In that frame, what attracts is a thought rather than a thing. The phrase marks reasoning the writer finds appealing but holds loosely, as David Simpson does in The Guardian Weekly (2013) before guessing why anyone would take to the skies in a balloon basket.

   It is tempting to conclude that the plan failed from the start.

   It is tempting to blame the weather, but the roads were badly built.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of tempt.

   The bakery was tempting passersby with the smell of warm pastries.

   Tempting investors with high returns, the company quickly raised millions.

   Note

   The verb form always takes an object: a bakery is tempting passersby, a company is tempting investors. That object is the quickest test against the "appealing" adjective, which takes none and accepts very or more, as in a very tempting offer. Because tempt is transitive in every sense, the participle carries all of them. That includes provoking or courting, where what is tempted is a risk rather than a person.

3. 3
   adjective

   Seductive and alluring; inviting in a way that stirs desire.

   Her voice was low and tempting, impossible to ignore.

   The perfume ad promised something tempting and faintly forbidden.

   Similarseductive, alluring, enticing, sultry

   Oppositerepellent

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The act of putting someone under temptation, trying to make a person want what they ought to avoid.

   The tempting of the hero by easy riches drives the whole story.

   His patient tempting of the witness into a contradiction drew an objection.

   Similartemptation, enticement, seduction

   Note

   A verbal noun that can be counted: temptings in the plural, each one a separate act of trial. William Bridge's sermon On Temptation (1646) pairs Satan's temptings with his winnowings, picturing the faithful sifted like grain. Unlike the participle and gerund, which takes a direct object (tempting the witness), the noun names the person tempted with of: the tempting of the witness.

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