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• tee
  tee

  noun

  the letter T or t.
• TEE
  TEE

  abbreviation

  Trans-Europe Express.

tee

¹ American  

[tee] / ti /

noun

1. 

   the letter T or t.

2. something shaped like a T , as a three-way joint used in fitting pipes together.

3. T-bar.

4. T-shirt.

5. the mark aimed at in various games, as curling.

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adjective

1. having a crosspiece at the top; shaped like a T .

idioms

1. to a tee. T.

tee ² American  

[tee] / ti /

noun

1. Golf.

   1. Also called teeing ground. the starting place, usually a hard mound of earth, at the beginning of play for each hole.

   2. a small wooden, plastic, metal, or rubber peg from which the ball is driven, as in teeing off.

2. Football. a device on which the ball may be placed to raise it off the ground preparatory to kicking.

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verb (used with object)

• tees,
  present (3rd person singular)
• teed,
  past participle,  past
• teeing
  present participle

1. Golf. to place (the ball) on a tee.

verb phrase

1. tee off

   1. Golf. to strike the ball from a tee.

   2. Slang. to reprimand severely; scold.

      He teed off on his son for wrecking the car.

   3. Informal. to begin.

      They teed off the program with a medley of songs.

   4. Baseball, Softball. to make many runs and hits, especially extra-base hits.

      teeing off for six runs on eight hits, including three doubles and a home run.

   5. Baseball, Softball. to hit (a pitched ball) hard and far.

      He teed off on a fastball and drove it into the bleachers.

   6. Boxing. to strike with a powerful blow, especially to the head.

      He teed off on his opponent with an overhand right.

   7. Slang. to make angry, irritated, or disgusted.

      She was teed off because her dinner guests were late.

TEE ³ American  

Or T-E-E

abbreviation

1. Trans-Europe Express.

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tee ¹ British  

/ tiː /

noun

1. a pipe fitting in the form of a letter T, used to join three pipes

2. a metal section with a cross section in the form of a letter T, such as a rolled-steel joist

3. any part or component shaped like a T

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tee ² British  

/ tiː /

noun

1. Also called: teeing ground. an area, often slightly elevated, from which the first stroke of a hole is made

2. a support for a golf ball, usually a small wooden or plastic peg, used when teeing off or in long grass, etc

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verb

1. to position (the ball) ready for striking, on or as if on a tee

tee ³ British  

/ tiː /

noun

1. a mark used as a target in certain games such as curling and quoits

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• teeing
  present
• teed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tee
  simple
• tees
  simple
• have teed
  perfect
• has teed
  perfect
• am teeing
  progressive
• are teeing
  progressive
• is teeing
  progressive
• have been teeing
  perfect progressive
• has been teeing
  perfect progressive

Past

• teed
  simple
• had teed
  perfect
• was teeing
  progressive
• were teeing
  progressive
• had been teeing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tee
  simple
• will have teed
  perfect
• will be teeing
  progressive
• will have been teeing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of tee¹

First recorded in 1600–10

Origin of tee²

First recorded in 1665–75; origin uncertain

Explanation

In golf, a tee is the small wooden support off of which you hit a golf ball. The word tee is also used more generally for the area of a golf course where you begin a match. Other sports that use a tee include tee ball, American football, and rugby—each of these tees is significantly larger than a golf tee. As a verb, tee means "hit off of a tee," and in golf you "tee off" when play begins. Besides its Scottish origin, not much is known about where this word comes from. Informally, when you're teed off at someone, you're really angry.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tee TEE tees teed teeing

The state legislation is a response to a network of brokers that had sprouted up around Los Angeles municipal golf course tee times.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026

But though “Primetime” fails to be a deservedly introspective analysis of its subject matter, it does tee up fair questions about its own existence.

From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026

There is water from the left of the tee, while bunkers await players attempting to play safely towards the right.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

Could the series tee up a full Maximoff family reunion?

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

Kareem’s dressed as Ham—white tee, white socks, jean shorts, and a catcher’s mask on his head.

From "A High Five for Glenn Burke" by Phil Bildner

Take a moment to slow down, breathe deep and drink a cup of tea at Jäger TEE, a small family-owned tea shop steps away from the opera.

From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2022

But he found that physiologists had developed a better way to measure TEE over a day: the doubly labeled water method, which measures TEE without asking a subject to breathe into a hood all day.

From Science Magazine ● Feb. 16, 2022

OFF THE TEE I have one idiosyncrasy that helps my driving accuracy.

From Golf Digest ● Apr. 7, 2018

TEE TIMES: Tiger Woods will open Thursday at 12:07 p.m. on the 10th tee in a group with Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth.

From Washington Times ● Jan. 28, 2015

—In answer to the inquiry of TEE BEE, I beg to refer him to vol. iii.

From Notes and Queries, Number 84, June 7, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Geneologists, etc. by Various

Costume designer Maya Edmond dresses Big Ant thematically: white tees when he’s trying to be good, black duds when his demons are winning and comic book-y jailbird stripes during his pivotal teenage arrest.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

Driven by nostalgia and a desire for authentic style, old threadbare tees have turned into big business.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

A much-improved performance against Wales now tees up their final game of this block against Steve Borthwick's England.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

By the end, screenwriter Ana Nogueira tees up some compelling moral dilemmas about the ethics of revenge, but Gillespie’s direction fails to entertain them with the weight they deserve.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026

They were artsy misfits who dressed exclusively in concert tees and ragged flannels, and it was those brooding qualities that intrigued me more than the cookie-cutter athlete and cheerleader types.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

In the 76th minute, Messi completed his hat-trick, having been teed up by substitute Nico Gonzalez.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

That doesn’t include Sunshine’s deal or the IPOs being teed up by SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI, which are expected to be among the largest ever.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026

But after Dylan Coghlan went off for interference, Sennecke teed up a shot from the top of the right circle for his fourth goal of the playoffs, putting the Ducks up 1-0.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026

This weaseling is probably the same reason that the court teed up Section 2’s constitutionality in an obscure order issued late on a Friday afternoon in August last year.

From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2026

I’ll figure out what needs to be done to make Pops’s dream come true so that when Nate’s ready, everything will be all teed up for him.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

As of Thursday, two circuits have affirmed the government’s position and six opposed it, teeing up what experts call an inevitable Supreme Court challenge.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

Such is his quality, he went top of the World Cup assists leaderboard by teeing up Gabriel Martinelli's late winner against Japan.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

In other Musk-y news, SpaceX is teeing up some massive spending before its IPO.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026

The path, in short, is to fix airport lines now by teeing up what later could be the biggest legislative fight of the year.

From Slate ● Mar. 24, 2026

A golden afternoon on the golf course, the fairways lush and green, and he was teeing it up on the first hole.

From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien