tease

7 definitions • 7 examples

to laugh at someone or say unkind things about them, either because you are joking or because you want to upset that person:

be teased about I used to hate being teased about my red hair when I was at school.

I was just teasing - I didn't mean to upset you.

to give a small amount of information about a subject, product, etc. in order to make people interested in seeing or hearing more about it later:

The announcement teased a possible European tour the following year.

He refused to give specifics but teased that "people are going to love it."

to hold your hair away from your head and brush it towards your head with a comb, in order to make it look thicker

someone who is always teasing people:

Johnny, don't be such a tease - leave your sister alone!

someone who enjoys causing sexual excitement and interest in people she or he does not intend to have sex with

to intentionally annoy a person or animal by saying something that is not true or pretending to do something, often in a playful way:

[ T ] Don’t tease the dog by showing her the treat if you’re not going to give it to her.

[ I ] I was only teasing (= joking), I didn’t mean anything by it.

a person who likes to annoy other people by saying false things or pretending to do something