teaser

American  

[tee-zer] / ˈti zər /

noun

1. a person or thing that teases.

2. an advertisement that lures customers or clients by offering a bonus, gift, or the like.

3. 1. Also called tease,.  Also called teaser ad.  Television. a short, impressionistic image, promotional video, or audio spot that reveals very little about the product or company being advertised and is presented to generate interest in advance of the primary advertising campaign.

   2. Also called teaser trailer,.  Also called trailer tease.  Movies. a short, edited promotional video to generate interest in an upcoming film and announce its release date: a teaser is a forerunner to full-length trailers for the film that feature highlights and are shown closer to the film’s distribution date.

   3. Also called bumper tease.  Television. bumper.

4. Informal. tease.

5. Theater. a drapery or flat piece across the top of the proscenium arch that masks the flies and that, together with the tormentors, forms a frame for the stage opening.

6. Printing, Journalism. kicker.

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teaser British  

/ ˈtiːzə /

noun

1. a person who teases

2. a preliminary advertisement in a campaign that attracts attention by making people curious to know what product is being advertised

3. a difficult question

4. vet science a vasectomized male animal, such as an ox, used to detect oestrus in females

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Etymology

Origin of teaser

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English teser “machine for teasing wool”; tease, -er ¹

Example Sentences

The singer also shared a teaser for a remix of her smash hit Mercy on TikTok in March, in her first social media post since 2020.

From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026

Home buyers are taking advantage of the lower initial teaser rates while waiting for long-term fixed rates to drop.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

The filmmakers “sent me this 12-minute assembly, kind of like a teaser, and that’s all I saw,” says Pike.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2026

As a teaser trailer released late last year noted, with a bit of cribbing from Peter Jackson, “the age of toys is over.”

From Salon • Feb. 19, 2026

“I didn’t expect fundamental deterioration in the underlying mortgage pools to hit critical levels for a couple years,” he said—when the teaser rates would vanish and monthly payments would skyrocket.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Related Words

• conundrum
• enigma
• problem
• question
• riddle
• secrecy
• subtlety
• thriller