teasing

American

[tee-zing] / ˈti zɪŋ /

noun

the act of persistently annoying someone, especially playfully and with silly jokes about them.

Most holidays, we all manage to squeeze in at Grandma’s and enjoy a crazy day full of laughter, teasing, eating, and sharing.
the act of bullying, harassing, or tormenting someone.

Many students with learning disabilities suffer the frustration of low achievement and the teasing and poor self-image that come with it.
the act of purposely exciting, tantalizing, or sexually arousing someone without providing subsequent gratification.

She smiled over her shoulder at him, brown eyes shiny with teasing.

adjective

harassing, tantalizing, or playfully annoying someone in any of these ways.

In answer to my eager question, they shrugged a teasing “maybe.”
Lisa turns 20 next month and her mother is already sending her teasing texts featuring grandma emojis.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

teasingly

adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

teasings

plural

Etymology

Origin of teasing

First recorded in 1585–95; teas(e) ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun senses; teas(e) ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective sense

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

teasing teasings

Temper those outrageous emotions, the ones the algorithms have gotten so good at teasing out of us.

From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2026

For the last several days, the company has been teasing a “Cybercab launch event” in its hometown of Austin, Texas.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026

Even the winning six delivered a tantalising wait, hanging in the air, teasing the chance of a catch, but it just crept over the rope to spark Super Giants' celebrations.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

The Spidey Tracker info from the “Brand New Day” post-credits scene could be teasing that’s where Spider-Man will eventually land.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

I can tell from his eyebrow that he’s teasing.

From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron

But her teasings – like her reminders of Jennifer Lawrence’s struggles with the forces of gravity — were generally light and pleasantly show-bizzy.

From Salon ● Mar. 3, 2014

Dr. Aicadre accepts his invalidism with bitter fatalism; the only things that are insupportable are the teasings of Madame Teterger's idiot son, who hates him. and the starvation rations given to his pet dog Bobbee.

From Time Magazine Archive

Occasionally he succeeded; but I always escaped with ease, because I chose for my teasings only days when it had rained a short time before.

From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12 by Various

It was these teasings of her brother that gave me my first inkling that the old ranchero was a wily matchmaker, though he religiously denied every such accusation.

From A Texas Matchmaker by Andy Adams

His old exasperation against the teasings practised in his own case by apes of the air, whom he could not lay hold of, passed over into a similar feeling against Liana's optical self-deception.

From Titan: A Romance v. 1 (of 2) by Jean Paul Friedrich Richter

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023