tantalize
/ˈtæntəlaɪz/
tantalize verb: to tease (someone) by offering or showing them something desirable but leaving them unsatisfied.
Verb
tantalize (third-person singular simple present tantalizes, present participle tantalizing, simple past and past participle tantalized)
- To tease (someone) by offering or showing them something desirable but leaving them unsatisfied.
- They could not bear to be tantalized nor tortured by the splendid delusion.1880, John Boyle O'Reilly, “The Land of the Red Line”, in Moondyne
- All pleasures palled upon me; all sights tantalized and tempted me to outspoken treason, because I could not but compare what I saw in Two Dimensions with what it really was if seen in Three, and could hardly refrain from making my comparisons aloud.1884, Edwin Abbott Abbott, “Other Worlds”, in Flatland, § 22
- Synonyms:
- taunt
- To be teased by something desirable that is kept out of reach.
- The poore people in Corinth did ſee, and ſmell, vvhat the rich men taſted, Tantalizing all the vvhile, and having their penury doubled by the Antiperiſtaſis of others plenty[…]1640, Thomas Fuller, “A Comment on 1 Cor. II. 20. 21.”, in Ioseph’s Partie-coloured Coat: Containing, a Comment on Part of the II. Chapter of the I. Epistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians. […]...
tantalize meaning in Malayalam and Kannada
tantalize in Malayalam
- തൃഷ്ണ വർദ്ധിപ്പിച്ചു വ്യസനിപ്പിക്കുക, കൊതിപ്പിച്ചു വശംകെടുത്തുക
tantalize in Kannada
- ಗೋಳುಹುಟ್ಟಿಸು, ತೋರಿಸಿ ಕೊಡದಿರು
Synonyms of tantalize
Forms of tantalize
| third-person singular present | tantalizes |
|---|---|
| present participle | tantalizing |
| past participle | tantalized |
| past | tantalized |
| alternative form | tantalise |
Origin of tantalize
From Tantalus (Ancient Greek Τάνταλος (Tántalos)) in Greek mythology, who was condemned to Tartarus in the underworld. There, he had to stand for eternity in water that receded from him when he stooped to drink, beneath fruit trees whose branches were always out of reach. Derived as Tantalus + -ize.
Words formed from tantalize
Questions about tantalize
- What does tantalize mean?
- Tantalize means to tease (someone) by offering or showing them something desirable but leaving them unsatisfied.
- What is tantalize in Malayalam?
- Tantalize in Malayalam is തൃഷ്ണ വർദ്ധിപ്പിച്ചു വ്യസനിപ്പിക്കുക, കൊതിപ്പിച്ചു വശംകെടുത്തുക. See Tantalize meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is tantalize?
- Tantalize is a verb.
- How do you pronounce tantalize?
- Tantalize is pronounced /ˈtæntəlaɪz/.
- What is the past tense of tantalize?
- The past tense of tantalize is tantalized.
Words near tantalize in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tantalize (page history and authors); tantalize (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tantalize (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tantalize.ogg, en-au-tantalize.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tantalize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tantalize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.