Library / English Dictionary

TANTALIZE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Harass with persistent criticism or carping

Example:

His fellow workers razzed him when he wore a jacket and tie

Synonyms:

bait; cod; rag; rally; razz; ride; tantalise; tantalize; taunt; tease; twit

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "tantalize" is one way to...):

bemock; mock (treat with contempt)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tantalize"):

barrack; flout; gibe; jeer; scoff (laugh at with contempt and derision)

banter; chaff; jolly; josh; kid (be silly or tease one another)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

tantalization (the act of harassing someone playfully or maliciously (especially by ridicule); provoking someone with persistent annoyances)

tantalizer (someone who tantalizes; a tormentor who offers something desirable but keeps it just out of reach)

Tantalus ((Greek mythology) a wicked king and son of Zeus; condemned in Hades to stand in water that receded when he tried to drink and beneath fruit that receded when he reached for it)

Credits

 Context examples: 

"It was—simply amazing," she repeated abstractedly. "But I swore I wouldn't tell it and here I am tantalizing you."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)