teasen.
1.
a. The action of teasing. †upon the tease, uneasy from trifling irritation (obsolete). rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of annoyance or vexation > [noun] > teasing
teasing1678
tease1693
running1833
teasement1888
riding1922
1693 C. Mather Wonders Invis. World (1862) 162 After she had undergone a deal of Teaze from the Annoyance of the Spectre.
1706 S. Centlivre Basset-table iii. i. 34 There's One upon the Teaze already.
1707 S. Centlivre Platonick Lady v. i. 61 I left her upon the Teaze.
1878–9 S. Lanier Individuality in Poems 10 No pitiless tease of risk or bottomry.
b. tease number n. U.S. a strip-tease act.
ΚΠ
1927 Variety 13 July 35/5 The four feminine principals alternated in ‘tease’ numbers with the help of the chorus.
1930 Variety 3 Dec. 54 With a fair voice, a nice figure and lots of personality, Miss Almond clicked easily in her tease numbers.
2.
a. A person addicted to teasing; one who irritates another in a trifling or sportive way. colloquial.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > derision, ridicule, or mockery > banter or good-humoured ridicule > [noun] > one who banters
railleur1655
raillier1663
banterer1678
rallier1678
badineur1734
quiz1797
quizzer1797
queerera1800
smoker1812
persifleur1829
chaffer1851
tease1853
leg-puller1887
josher1899
ragger1903
kibitzer1925
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of annoyance or vexation > [noun] > teasing > one who teases
baiter1611
teaser1659
tease1853
1853 C. Dickens Bleak House xxx. 293 What a teaze you are!
1899 B. Harraden Fowler ii. v. 190 I am a tease by nature.
b. spec. = cockteaser n. (but less coarse). Also transferred.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual desire > [noun] > that which excites > sexually exciting person > person who tempts someone sexually with no intention of satisfying the desire aroused
cockteaser1891
teaser1895
prick-teaser?1939
cocktease1966
prick tease1974
tease1976
1976 New Yorker 16 Feb. 107/2 It's easy to get laughs by..showing women..as rich teases, like Mariangela Melato's role in ‘Swept Away’.
1978 D. Devine Sunk without Trace xxii. 202 Sorry, Ken, but..it's not fair to encourage you to try. I will not be a tease.
1979 Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. i. 1/2 Lulu is..a cruel tease to the lesbian countess Geschwitz.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
teasev.1
/tiːz/, U.S. /tiz/ 1. † c. To tear in pieces. Obsolete.
a. transitive. To separate or pull asunder the fibres of; to comb or card (wool, flax, etc.) in preparation for spinning; to open out by pulling asunder; to shred.
ΚΠ
c1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 112 Nim þanne wulle & tæs hy.
?c1390 Forme of Cury in Warner Antiq. Culin. (1791) 17 Take the brawn, and tese it smal.
?a1475 Noble Bk. Cookry in Middle Eng. Dict. at Tesen Then teese the braun of capon or henn small and put the rise to the mylke & boile it.
1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Carmenar To picke wooll, to tease wooll, carminare.
1637 J. Milton Comus 26 To ply The sampler, and to teize the huswifes wooll.
1639 J. Woodall Treat. Plague in Surgeons Mate (rev. ed.) 344 Take Saffron..then tease it, I meane, pull the parts thereof asunder.
1683 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises II. 342 [He] Teizes his Wooll, by opening all the..matted knots he finds in it.
1827 P. Cunningham Two Years New S. Wales II. xxvi. 159 While teasing out the tobacco-leaf to charge his pipe.
1851 Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal. p. iv**/2 The quick moving cards teaze out the fibres, and gradually, very gradually, disentangle them.
1875 T. H. Huxley & H. N. Martin Course Elem. Biol. (1876) xi. 122 Tease out a bit of the liver in water, and examine with 1/ 8 obj.
1893 A. N. Palmer Hist. Wrexham IV. 10 The flax dressers prepared the flax for the linen spinners and weavers by ‘teasing’ it.
b. To comb the surface of cloth, after weaving, with teasels, which draw all the free hairs or fibres in one direction, so as to form a nap.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture textile fabric or that which consists of > manufacture of textile fabric > treating or processing textile fabric > treat or process textile fabric [verb (transitive)] > put nap on
raise1482
rough1484
row1487
cotton1488
moze1505
frieze1509
teasel1603
nap1608
tease1755
card1766
frizz1806
1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Tease,..to scratch cloth in order to level the nap.
1829 J. L. Knapp Jrnl. Naturalist 48 Many of these [teasel] heads are fixed in a frame; and with this the surface of the cloth is teased, or brushed, until all the ends are drawn out.
1861 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 172 Blankets were made of goats'-wool, teased into a satiny surface by little Teazel-like brushes of bamboo.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > tearing or tearing apart > tear [verb (transitive)] > tear apart
to-loukc890
to-braidc893
to-tearc893
to-teec893
to-rendc950
to-breakc1200
to-tugc1220
to-lima1225
rivea1250
to-drawa1250
to-tosea1250
drawa1300
rendc1300
to-rit13..
to-rivec1300
to-tusec1300
rakea1325
renta1325
to-pullc1330
to-tightc1330
tirec1374
halea1398
lacerate?a1425
to-renta1425
yryve1426
raga1450
to pull to (or in) piecesc1450
ravec1450
discerp1483
pluck1526
rip1530
decerp1531
rift1534
dilaniate1535
rochec1540
rack1549
teasea1550
berend1577
distract1585
ream1587
distrain1590
unrive1592
unseam1592
outrive1598
divulse1602
dilacerate1604
harrow1604
tatter1608
mammocka1616
uprentc1620
divell1628
divellicate1638
seam-rend1647
proscind1659
skail1768
screeda1785
spret1832
to tear to shreds1837
ribbon1897
a1550 Hye Way to Spyttel H. 888 in W. C. Hazlitt Remains Early Pop. Poetry Eng. IV. 63 Lyke as wolues the shepe dooth take and tease.
d. U.S. Hairdressing. = back-comb n. at back- comb. form 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautification of the person > beautification of the hair > beautify (the hair) [verb (transitive)] > comb
kembc1000
comb1398
pectinate1623
rede1718
to comb out1854
redd1864
back-comb1865
fine-tooth comb1889
rat1904
hackle1929
tease1957
sleek1959
1957 Amer. Hairdresser Sept. 66 Pick up one inch of hair and with comb, tease the strand. This creates the lift so necessary to the style.
1962 E. Frank Best Hairdos 7 Tease entire head gently for fullness.
1978 J. Updike Coup (1979) iv. 171 Her hair bleached platinum and teased to a bouffant mass.
e. to tease out (figurative): to extract, get out, obtain, esp. by painstaking effort. Also to tease on to.
ΚΠ
1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 17 There was a time when Pirandello could tease a comedy of pain out of six characters in search of an author.
1971 Language 47 525 It is only by the most careful discrimination that we are able to tease out the critical referential features from the mass of inferential stuff that surrounds them in normal speech.
1974 J. A. Michener Centennial x. 580 He was struck with how easy life was in Pennsylvania and how brutally difficult in Colorado, where you had to dig a ditch twenty miles before you could tease a little water onto your land.
2. figurative.1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth I. 54 The earth..constantly teized more to furnish..luxuries..than..necessities.1856 E. B. Browning Aurora Leigh i. 38 I..teased The patient needle till it spilt the thread.1893 Westm. Gaz. 17 Feb. 3/1 It is all done with that flowing brush.., and there is nothing teased or overworked in the whole of it.
a. To worry or irritate by persistent action which vexes or annoys; now esp. in lighter sense, to disturb by persistent petty annoyance, out of mere mischief or sport; to bother or plague in a petty way.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of annoyance or vexation > be annoyed or vexed by [verb (transitive)] > annoy or vex > tease
tease1627
rag1749
lugger1782
gammon1801
tig1805
fun1811
run1828
ride1891
rawhide1895
to bust (a person's) chops1953
stir1972
to pull a person's chain1975
1627 [implied in: T. May tr. Lucan Pharsalia iii. 527 Vntill the townesmens teased valour broke..The fence. (at teased adj. 2a)].
1679 C. Hatton in E. M. Thompson Corr. Family of Hatton (1878) I. 210 After he had thus teised them for 2 or 3 houres he left them.
1686 tr. J. Chardin Trav. Persia 162 Teizing me for two Hours together with a Thousand Impertinencies.
1710 J. Swift Lett. (1767) III. 23 Lord Halifax is always teazing me to go down to his country house, which will cost me a guinea to his servants, and twelve shillings coach hire.
1774 T. Pennant Tour Scotl. 1772 283 The violent squalls of wind..teized us for an hour.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth IV. 74 To avoid teizing the reader with a minute description.
1782 F. Burney Early Jrnls. & Lett. (2012) V. 194 [They] resisted reading the Book till they were teized into it.
1827 D. Johnson Sketches Indian Field Sports (ed. 2) 208 A boy..was teizing the animal to make it bite him.
1881 W. Besant & J. Rice Chaplain of Fleet I. i. 14 Harry ceased to tease and torment them with little tricks and devices of mischief.
b. absol. or intransitive. (With first quot., cf. touse v.)
ΚΠ
a1625 J. Fletcher Monsieur Thomas (1639) v. x. sig. M2 What a coyle has this Fellow kept i' th' Nunnery..Pray heavens he be not teasing.
1693 J. Dryden tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires vi. 103 Conscious of Crimes her self, she teyzes first.
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 144. ⁋6 To teize with feeble blows and impotent disturbance.
a1861 E. B. Browning Little Mattie vii Love both ways, kiss and tease.
c. = strip-tease vb. at strip-tease n. Derivatives. U.S.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > variety, etc. > perform in variety [verb (intransitive)] > striptease
tease1927
strip1929
strip-tease1937
1927 Variety 13 July 35/5 Where they cooch in New York they ‘tease’ here.
1953 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang (1954) §593/22 ‘Do a striptease.’.. Strip, striptease, tease.
3. slang. To flog. ? Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > corporal punishment > administer corporal punishment [verb (transitive)] > beat
threshOE
beatc1000
to lay on?c1225
chastise1362
rapa1400
dressc1405
lack?c1475
paya1500
currya1529
coil1530
cuff1530
baste1533
thwack1533
lick1535
firka1566
trounce1568
fight1570
course1585
bumfeage1589
feague1589
lamback1589
lambskin1589
tickle1592
thrash1593
lam1595
bumfeagle1598
comb1600
fer1600
linge1600
taw1600
tew1600
thrum1604
feeze1612
verberate1614
fly-flap1620
tabor1624
lambaste1637
feak1652
flog1676
to tan (a person's) hide1679
slipper1682
liquora1689
curry-comb1708
whack1721
rump1735
screenge1787
whale1790
lather1797
tat1819
tease1819
larrup1823
warm1824
haze1825
to put (a person) through a course of sprouts1839
flake1841
swish1856
hide1875
triangle1879
to give (a person or thing) gyp1887
soak1892
to loosen (a person's) hide1902
1819 J. H. Vaux New Vocab. Flash Lang. in Memoirs II. 218 Teaze, to flog or whip.
1865 Daily Tel. 27 Oct. 5/2 ‘When I've had another teasing,’ said a boy thief..alluding to the hangman and his cat, ‘I shall be as good as Tommy So-and-So’.
Draft additions September 2013
intransitive. To excite sexual desire, esp. without the intention of satisfying it. Also transitive: to arouse or tempt (a person) in this way.
ΚΠ
1694 T. D'Urfey Songs Don Quixote: Pt. 1 25 When a Woman Love pretends, 'tis but till she gains her ends.., this hour will teize, will teize and vex.., and will Cuckold ye the next.
1767 J. Robinson Poet's Man. 17 To teaze the cook-maid with his am'rous flame, And in acrostics wanton with her name.
1860 Chambers's Jrnl. 28 July 50/1 Coming out..to flirt and sentimentalise, and tease and love.
1986 D. Steel Wanderlust (1987) 98 ‘You're driving me mad, you know.’ She felt guilty about that, and she didn't mean to tease. ‘I'm so sorry, Charles.’
2005 FHM Jan. 135/4 The way to get a girl really hot is to tease her to a point where she can't take any more.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
teasev.2
local.
transitive. To feed (a furnace fire) with fuel; to attend to (a fire or furnace).
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > working with tools or equipment > work with tools or equipment [verb (transitive)] > furnace or kiln > stoke or feed
stoke1683
fire1688
tease1818
1818 J. Adley Coal Trade (Northumb. Gloss.) You must have furnacemen to teaze and rouse the fire.
1894 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words at Teaser The glass-house teasers wore broad-brimmed felt hats..to protect them from the scorching fires. They also wore ‘hand-hats’ of thick felt, to enable them to hold the long iron teasing pokers.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
<
n.1693
v.1c1000v.21818