Showing results for "teasing"

• present participle of tease.

teasing

American  

[tee-zing] / ˈti zɪŋ /

noun

• teasings
  plural

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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adjective

1. 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

See Examples For:

teasing teasings

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

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

Writing in The Times, Beard bemoaned that the poem's "erotic puzzles, the teasing ironies, the intriguing questions about truth and falsehood" had been replaced with "a rather ponderous Hollywood message about civilisational decline".

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

At some point, I complained to my mom about the teasing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

“Well, the last thing you should do is get anyone in trouble, because then they’ll just keep teasing, or whatever you want to call it.”

From "Maybe He Just Likes You" by Barbara Dee

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

I believe that after living awhile with men, we perceive that bickerings, ill-humours, teasings on trifles, perhaps cause more troubles and divisions among them than serious things.

From Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3) Turgot by John Morley

In his familiar intercourse, Bonaparte was what schoolboys call a tease; but his teasings were never spiteful, and seldom unkind.

From The Companions of Jehu by Alexandre Dumas père

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

Related Words

• irritating
• joking
• mocking