tease out

British

verb

(tr, adverb) to extract (information) with difficulty

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

tease out Idioms

Lure out, obtain or extract with effort, as in We had a hard time teasing the wedding date out of him. This term alludes to the literal sense of tease, “untangle or release something with a pointed tool.” [Mid-1900s]

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:

tease out

"These simulations allow us to tease out small effects to determine what actually happens, helping us to understand our observations."

From Science Daily ● Mar. 24, 2026

To tease out the underlying trend, the Fed has focused on core services prices excluding housing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 21, 2026

Many advanced economies are so thoroughly distorted by the land-finance nexus that it can be hard to even tease out the consequences.

From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2025

Miller said he plans to use the data to try and tease out what is behind these brain differences and whether they are due to genetics or potential environmental risk factors.

From Salon ● Jan. 6, 2025

“The methods of working with that data to really tease out the important information have come a very, very long way,” Krippner said.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

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