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Webster 1913 Edition

Tease

Tease

(tēz)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Teased
(tēzd)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Teasing
.]
[AS.
t[GREEK]san
to pluck, tease; akin to OD.
teesen
, MHG.
zeisen
, Dan.
tæse
,
tæsse
. √58. Cf.
Touse
.]
1.
To comb or card, as wool or flax.
“Teasing matted wool.”
Wordsworth.
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.
Cowper.
He . . . suffered them to
tease
him into acts directly opposed to his strongest inclinations.
Macaulay.
Syn. – 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
.
Hudibras.
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.
Cogan.
Tease tenon
(Joinery)
,
a long tenon at the top of a post to receive two beams crossing each other one above the other.

Tease

,
Noun.
One who teases or plagues.
[Colloq.]

Webster 1828 Edition

Tease

TEASE

,
Verb.
T.
s as z.
1.
To comb or card, as wool or flax.
2.
To scratch, as cloth in dressing, for the purpose of raising a nap.
3.
To vex with importunity or impertinence; to harass, annoy, disturb or irritate by petty requests, or by jests and raillery. Parents are often teased by their children into unreasonable compliances.
My friends tease me about him, because he has no estate.

Definition 2024

tease

tease

English

Verb

tease ‎(third-person singular simple present teases, present participle teasing, simple past and past participle teased)

  1. To separate the fibres of a fibrous material.
  2. To comb (originally with teasels) so that the fibres all lie in one direction.
  3. To back-comb.
  4. (transitive) To poke fun at.
  5. (transitive) To provoke or disturb; to annoy.
    • Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859)
      He […] suffered them to tease him into acts directly opposed to his strongest inclinations.
    • 1684, Samuel Butler, Hudibras
      Not by the force of carnal reason, / But indefatigable teasing.
    • 1907, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “chapter VIII”, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 4241346:
      "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."
  6. (transitive) To entice, to tempt.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

tease ‎(plural teases)

  1. One who teases.
  2. A single act of teasing.
  3. A cock tease; an exotic dancer; a stripper.

Synonyms

Translations

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English tesen, from Old English tǣsan ‎(“to tease”), from Proto-Germanic *taisijaną ‎(“to separate, tug, shred”), from Proto-Indo-European *dāy- ‎(“to separate, divide”). Cognate with West Frisian tiezje, tiizje ‎(“to baffle, perplex”), Dutch tezen ‎(“to pull, tug, scratch”), German zeisen ‎(“to pluck, pluck apart”), Danish tæse ‎(“to tease”). Related to touse, tose.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: tēz, IPA(key): /tiːz/
  • Homophones: teas, tees
  • Rhymes: -iːz

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