TEASE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Tease

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/tiz/ Listen

verb

Tease v. t. (past & past part. teased; pres. part. teasing)

1.

To comb or card, as wool or flax. "Teasing matted wool."

2.

To stratch, as cloth, for the purpose of raising a nap; teasel.

3.

(Anat.) To tear or separate into minute shreds, as with needles or similar instruments.

4.

To vex with importunity or impertinence; to harass, annoy, disturb, or irritate by petty requests, or by jests and raillery; to plague. "He... suffered them to tease him into acts directly opposed to his strongest inclinations."

Synonyms: To vex; harass: annoy; disturb; irritate; plague; torment; mortify; tantalize; chagrin. Tease, Vex. To tease is literally to pull or scratch, and implies a prolonged annoyance in respect to little things, which is often more irritating, and harder to bear, than severe pain. Vex meant originally to seize and bear away hither and thither, and hence, to disturb; as, to vex the ocean with storms. This sense of the term now rarely occurs; but vex is still a stronger word than tease, denoting the disturbance or anger created by minor provocations, losses, disappointments, etc. We are teased by the buzzing of a fly in our eyes; we are vexed by the carelessness or stupidity of our servants. "Not by the force of carnal reason, But indefatigable teasing." "In disappointments, where the affections have been strongly placed, and the expectations sanguine, particularly where the agency of others is concerned, sorrow may degenerate into vexation and chagrin."

Tease tenon (Joinery), a long tenon at the top of a post to receive two beams crossing each other one above the other.

noun

Tease n. One who teases or plagues. (Colloq.)

See images of 'Tease'

Etymology of 'Tease'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tease" Quotes from Famous Books

... would think you had never worn a ribbon, and that you'd gone bareheaded all the days of your life. But you needn't talk: it's not so long ago but I can remember when you were as fond of dress as any girl in the city. I remember how you used to tease mamma for ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April, 1876. • Various

... The curious inconsistencies of the Creole nature also interested him, and he spent much of his spare time sketching and studying the people. Two friendships he made there were diverse and lasting, but he complains very much of feeling the lack of a woman friend—no one to tease and pick ...

— A Student in Arms - Second Series • Donald Hankey

... not anxious to have you caught—not now. But you are almost impertinent; indeed you are. I cannot say a word you do not misinterpret. Please do not attempt to tease ...

— Love Under Fire • Randall Parrish

... mother is poor and we work for all we have! It isn't fair, because we can't help it, and we do the best we can. I never would say it to them in the world—never! In the first school I went to they used to tease the children who were timid, and bother them so much that they would forget their lessons and get punished when it was not their fault. But I looked after them," declared Anna, proudly. "I fought their battles for them, until the others left ...

— Ten American Girls From History • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... dream of impious obscene Satan, this Monstrous frenzy of life, the Indian being! And there are men in the dream! What men are they? I've heard, naught relishes their brains so much As to tie down a man and tease his flesh Infamously, until a hundred pains Hound the desiring life out of his body, Filling his nerves with such a fearful zest That the soul overstrained shatters beneath it. Must I preach God to these murderous hearts? I would my lot had fallen ...

— Georgian Poetry 1911-12 • Various

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