titillate
Americanverb (used with object)
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titillates,
present (3rd person singular)
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titillated,
past participle, past
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titillating
present participle
verb
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to arouse, tease, interest, or excite pleasurably and often superficially
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to cause a tickling or tingling sensation in, esp by touching
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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titillationnoun
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titillatingadjective
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titillativeadjective
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untitillatedadjective
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untitillatingadjective
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titillatinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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titillatesimple
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titillatessimple
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have titillatedperfect
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has titillatedperfect
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am titillatingprogressive
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are titillatingprogressive
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is titillatingprogressive
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have been titillatingperfect progressive
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has been titillatingperfect progressive
Past
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titillatedsimple
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had titillatedperfect
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was titillatingprogressive
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were titillatingprogressive
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had been titillatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of titillate
First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin tītillātus, past participle of tītillāre “to tickle”; see -ate 1
Explanation
A juicy steak may titillate your taste buds, or your friend's locked diary may titillate your curiosity. Titillate means to excite someone's imagination. Titillate comes from a Latin verb that means "tickle," and anything that titillates does seem to tickle the imagination. Sensational news headlines are deliberately written to titillate, making it hard not to pay attention to them. A display of fabulous pastries in a bakery window can titillate your appetite, while whispered rumors about your high school principal's past life as a rodeo clown may titillate your curiosity.
Vocabulary lists containing titillate
Just Mercy
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How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
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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:
A good newspaper seeks scoops that illuminate reality and don’t merely titillate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
There's little doubt that his mass of executive orders on day one will feature some eye-catching actions designed to titillate his base.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2025
Instead of disseminating useful information and debating important ideas, the internet is too often used to promote whacky theories and titillate users with inane gossip.
From Salon ● Apr. 22, 2023
Stories about crime that merely titillate can strike readers, viewers and listeners as voyeurism, with all the attraction and revulsion that implies.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2020
Today, when everything that I do has an urgency, I would not spend one hour in the preparation of a book which had the ambition to perhaps titillate some readers.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Ironically, the film mirrors the callow cinematic dynamics it critiques: It titillates, even as it scolds.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2023
Verhoeven’s world is the exception that titillates not to challenge the rule but to sucker viewers into overlooking it, ignoring it, and dismissing it.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 15, 2016
The title Hot Feminist titillates, and the content is controversial in a bland sort of way, if you’ve never read anything about feminism except what its detractors purport that it’s about.
From The Guardian ● May 20, 2015
The chemistry between these two groups isn’t always perfect, but the combination still titillates — more, at any rate, than Jeff Koons’s recently exhibited “Made in Heaven” series of the early 1990s.
From New York Times ● Feb. 10, 2011
It would kill us to drink Cologne water, but the perfume titillates the sense, and so we sprinkle it upon our handkerchiefs.
From Lessons in Life A Series of Familiar Essays by Timothy Titcomb
It was once the job of “sleazy” tabloids to destroy lives with lurid gossip that titillated the public but lacked public interest in the high-minded sense.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
It allowed them to feel self-righteous and titillated at the same time, an intoxicating combination that no fact can compete with.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2023
But while he is often titillated by watching how much attention he can command, and loves to try to manipulate the press, the reality behind the spectacle this time was unpleasant to him.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
Far from being titillated, I found I was unexpectedly saddened by this book.
From Slate ● Nov. 27, 2019
The prosecution of Marsha Colbey eventually caught the attention of the press, which was titillated by another “dangerous mother” story.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
In fact, in the hoo-hah over the Lakers, titillating to the media on both coasts, Mr. Trump has been a non-factor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
What would “White Lotus” be without its titillating score and those warbled “ooh-loo-loo-loo’s?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2025
The latter involves computer nerds clicking away at keyboards, which isn't as cinematic and emotionally arresting as the Zapruder film or titillating stories about alien abductions.
From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2025
This conceit, too, is recycled — either from the nearest Madame Tussauds, or from West’s 2016 “Famous” video, a far more titillating and genuine transgression.
From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2024
For audiences reared on the regular, predictable patterns of Haydn and Mozart, the Eroica’s many noisy surprises would have been both titillating and bewildering.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
