Tease Meaning
/tiːz/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo separate the fibres of (a fibrous material).
verbTo comb (originally with teasels) so that the fibres all lie in one direction.
Sentence Examples
Tom likes to tease Mary.
You shouldn't tease him.
My mom used to tease me all the time about it.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The older brother would ____ his little sister until she started crying.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He likes to ____ his younger sister about her new haircut, but he always does it in a very kind and playful way today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English tesen, from Old English tǣsan (“to tease”), from Proto-West Germanic *taisijan (“to separate, tug, shred”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The difference between teasing and taunting is like the difference between kissing and spitting. The ingredients are the same; it is the emotion that determines whether it is pleasing or repellent.... Proper teasing says, in effect, "I know all your little oddities and faults, but as they are part of what makes you special, I find them charming." Taunting, in contrast, makes only the harsh statement, "I have noticed what is wrong with you.""
— 1998 February 22, Judith Martin, “Tease and sympathy”, in The Washington Post:
"The beast in the past has done horrible stuff / And his victims were left quite displeased / No one knows what he's so angry about / Maybe once in third grade he was teased"
— 2008, Lich King, “Attack of the Wrath of the War of the Death of the Strike of the Sword of the Blood of the Beast”, in Toxic Zombie Onslaught:
"Not by the force of carnal reason, / But indefatigable teasing."
— 1684, Samuel Butler, Hudibras:
"I am myself, the sweetest temper'd man alive, and hate a teasing temper; and so I tell her a hundred Times a day—"
— 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, I.ii:
"He[…]suffered them to tease him into acts directly opposed to his strongest inclinations."
— 1848, Thomas Macaulay, History of England, volume I, page 76:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The older brother would ____ his little sister until she started crying.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He likes to ____ his younger sister about her new haircut, but he always does it in a very kind and playful way today.