Library / English Dictionary

TEASE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of harassing someone playfully or maliciously (especially by ridicule); provoking someone with persistent annoyances

Example:

his ribbing was gentle but persistent

Synonyms:

ribbing; tantalization; tease; teasing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("tease" is a kind of...):

harassment; molestation (the act of tormenting by continued persistent attacks and criticism)

Derivation:

tease (harass with persistent criticism or carping)

tease (annoy persistently)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men

Synonyms:

coquette; flirt; minx; prickteaser; tease; vamp; vamper

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("tease" is a kind of...):

adult female; woman (an adult female person (as opposed to a man))

Derivation:

tease (mock or make fun of playfully)

tease (to arouse hope, desire, or curiosity without satisfying them)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Someone given to teasing (as by mocking or stirring curiosity)

Synonyms:

annoyer; tease; teaser; vexer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("tease" is a kind of...):

persona non grata; unwelcome person (a person who for some reason is not wanted or welcome)

Derivation:

tease (harass with persistent criticism or carping)

tease (annoy persistently)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Ruffle (one's hair) by combing the ends towards the scalp, for a full effect

Synonyms:

fluff; tease

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "tease" is one way to...):

comb; comb out; disentangle (smoothen and neaten with or as with a comb)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They tease their hair

Derivation:

teasing (the act of removing tangles from you hair with a comb)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Harass with persistent criticism or carping

Example:

His fellow workers razzed him when he wore a jacket and tie

Synonyms:

bait; cod; rag; rally; razz; ride; tantalise; tantalize; taunt; tease; twit

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "tease" is one way to...):

bemock; mock (treat with contempt)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tease"):

barrack; flout; gibe; jeer; scoff (laugh at with contempt and derision)

banter; chaff; jolly; josh; kid (be silly or tease one another)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

teasing (the act of harassing someone playfully or maliciously (especially by ridicule); provoking someone with persistent annoyances)

teaser; tease (someone given to teasing (as by mocking or stirring curiosity))

tease (the act of harassing someone playfully or maliciously (especially by ridicule); provoking someone with persistent annoyances)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Mock or make fun of playfully

Example:

the flirting man teased the young woman

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "tease" is one way to...):

blackguard; guy; jest at; laugh at; make fun; poke fun; rib; ridicule; roast (subject to laughter or ridicule)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

tease (a seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men)

teaser (someone given to teasing (as by mocking or stirring curiosity))

Sense 4

Meaning:

Separate the fibers of

Example:

tease wool

Synonyms:

card; tease

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tease" is one way to...):

separate (divide into components or constituents)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Disentangle and raise the fibers of

Example:

tease wool

Synonyms:

loosen; tease; tease apart

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tease" is one way to...):

disentangle; straighten out; unsnarl (extricate from entanglement)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

teaser (a device for teasing wool)

teaser (a worker who teases wool)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Raise the nap of (fabrics)

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tease" is one way to...):

change surface (undergo or cause to undergo a change in the surface)

"Tease" entails doing...:

brush (rub with a brush, or as if with a brush)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 7

Meaning:

Tear into pieces

Example:

tease tissue for microscopic examinations

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tease" is one way to...):

rip up; shred; tear up (tear into shreds)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 8

Meaning:

Annoy persistently

Example:

The children teased the boy because of his stammer

Synonyms:

badger; beleaguer; bug; pester; tease

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "tease" is one way to...):

bedevil; crucify; dun; frustrate; rag; torment (treat cruelly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot tease Sue

Derivation:

tease (the act of harassing someone playfully or maliciously (especially by ridicule); provoking someone with persistent annoyances)

tease; teaser (someone given to teasing (as by mocking or stirring curiosity))

Sense 9

Meaning:

To arouse hope, desire, or curiosity without satisfying them

Example:

She has a way of teasing men with her flirtatious behavior

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "tease" is one way to...):

control; keep in line; manipulate (maintain influence over (others or oneself) skillfully, usually to one's advantage)

"Tease" entails doing...:

arouse; excite; sex; turn on; wind up (stimulate sexually)

disappoint; let down (fail to meet the hopes or expectations of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

tease (a seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men)

Credits

 Context examples: 

They tested more than 150 combinations of over 70 compounds to tease out a method to produce functional human beta cells from the cultured stem cells.

(Developing Insulin-Producing Cells to Treat Diabetes, NIH)

"This study brings us one step closer toward teasing out the effects in people with biomarker defined Alzheimer's."

(Aerobic Exercise Slows Cognitive Decline in Adults at Risk of Alzheimer's, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Teasing the two apart is difficult, especially in humans.

(Nose Form Was Shaped by Climate, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

In his anger he had met the first advances of the express messengers with growls, and they had retaliated by teasing him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

“No,” I answered, and she questioned no further, though I could have sworn her eyes retained for some time a mocking, teasing expression.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Given the inherent challenges in trying to observe these far-flung worlds, astronomers often need to combine data from a variety of sources in order to tease out basic details about their properties.

(2007 OR10: Largest Unnamed World in the Solar System, NASA)

The scientists recently authored a new study that moves picoscience in yet another direction: taking elements from the periodic table and tinkering with them at the subatomic level to tease out new materials.

(Picoscience and a plethora of new materials, National Science Foundation)

Sometimes it involves direct attacks such as hitting, name calling, teasing or taunting.

(Bullying, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

A young woman, if she fall into bad hands, may be teased, and kept at a distance from those she wants to be with; but one cannot comprehend a young man's being under such restraint, as not to be able to spend a week with his father, if he likes it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The researchers teased apart, for the first time, the early cascade of events that may eventually cause stenosis, a severe narrowing of the aortic valve that reduces blood flow to body tissues and weakens the heart.

(New Hope for Stopping An Understudied Heart Disease in Its Tracks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)