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Tantalize   Listen
verb
Tantalize  v. t.  (past & past part. tantalized; pres. part. tantalizing)  To tease or torment by presenting some good to the view and exciting desire, but continually frustrating the expectations by keeping that good out of reach; to tease; to torment. "Thy vain desires, at strife Within themselves, have tantalized thy life."
Synonyms: To tease; vex; irritate; provoke. Tantalize, Disappoint. To disappoint is literally to do away with what was (or was taken to be) appointed; hence the peculiar pain from hopes thus dashed to the ground. To tantalize, a much stronger term, describes a most distressing form of disappointment, as in the case of Tantalus, the Phrygian king. To tantalize is to visit with the bitterest disappointment to torment by exciting hopes or expectations which can never be realized.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Tantalize" Quotes from Famous Books



... she lay there, with that smile of warm eyes and rose-leaf mouth to tantalize me, before she recovered ...
— The Pirate of Panama - A Tale of the Fight for Buried Treasure • William MacLeod Raine

... "Don't tantalize me. I know how sweet that bed is, for I just got out of it myself," replied Miss Briggs sourly. Grace did not hear, for she already was sound asleep, and Elfreda, muttering to herself, straightened up and exercised her ...
— Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders Among the Kentucky Mountaineers • Jessie Graham Flower

... is the case I think you will not accuse me of being hasty in bringing the affair to a crisis. I ventured to tell her my whole heart, and instead of obscure and ambiguous answers, which some would have given to tantalize and pain one, she frankly, but modestly and timidly, told me it was mutual. Suffice it to say ...
— Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals - In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Samuel F. B. Morse

... snapped him off when he was crawling out of that hole. Just think what a lovely reminder it would have been in times to come!" wailed Will, pretending to be bitterly disappointed, though Frank imagined he was assuming this to tantalize Jerry. ...
— The Outdoor Chums on the Gulf • Captain Quincy Allen

... weeks, and goes to Doctor Meyer every other day for treatment. He's getting as rampageous as a caged lion, and vows he'll go off to the South Seas, or Labrador, or some other place where books and libraries and literary work won't tantalize him. He'd go to-morrow, I believe, if it weren't for mother. She ...
— Strawberry Acres • Grace S. Richmond

... recent introduction endeavour to enumerate as many as I can remember of the words which have by this method been introduced into our language. To begin with mythical antiquity—the Chimaera has given us 'chimerical', Hermes 'hermetic', Tantalus 'to tantalize', Hercules 'herculean', Proteus 'protean', Vulcan 'volcano' and 'volcanic', and Daedalus 'dedal', if this word may on Spenser's and Shelley's authority be allowed. Gordius, the Phrygian king who tied that famous ...
— English Past and Present • Richard Chenevix Trench

... her. She was staring before her at something that she alone could see. Her look was rather extraordinary. It occurred to Johnny that after all she had a right to tantalize—and this was really no moment ...
— The Innocent Adventuress • Mary Hastings Bradley



Words linked to "Tantalize" :   chaff, flout, scoff, tease, jolly, gibe, tantalization, mock, rag, banter, kid, rally, Tantalus



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