Word.ws English Dictionary

tantalizing

tantalizing adjective: teasing; tempting, especially that which is beyond reach. Also the present participle and gerund of tantalize.

Adjective

tantalizing (comparative more tantalizing, superlative most tantalizing)

  1. Teasing; tempting, especially that which is beyond reach.
    • ...then it was that monomaniac Ahab, furious with this tantalizing vicinity of his foe, which placed him all alive and helpless in the very jaws he hated; frenzied with all this, he seized the long bone with his naked hands, and wildly strove to wrench it from its gripe.1851, Herman Melville, chapter 133, in Moby Dick
    • The tantalising theory that a fifth force of nature could exist has been given a boost thanks to unexpected wobbling by a subatomic particle, physicists have revealed.2023 August 11, Nicola Davis, “Scientists may be on brink of discovering fifth force of nature”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 05 Dec 2023

Noun

tantalizing (plural tantalizings)

  1. teasing temptation
    • […] my resources against depressing thoughts and languor, amid the tantalizings of society […]1848, Spalding Club, Publications, number 18, Aberdeen, page 488

Also used as

tantalizing is also the present participle and gerund of tantalize.

Examples of tantalizing in a sentence

  • He merely got tantalizing scraps of information flung at him from the boundary wall of faydom.
  • In that wicked little black silk camisole that shows a tantalizing hint of cleavage?
  • “But I swore I wouldn’t tell it and here I am tantalizing you.”

All 18 example sentences with tantalizing

Forms of tantalizing

Adjective
comparativemore tantalizing
superlativemost tantalizing
Noun
pluraltantalizings

Words formed from tantalizing

Questions about tantalizing

What does tantalizing mean?
Tantalizing means teasing; tempting, especially that which is beyond reach.
What part of speech is tantalizing?
Tantalizing can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near tantalizing in the dictionary

  1. tantalize
  2. tantalized
  3. tantalizer
  4. tantalizers
  5. tantalizes
  6. tantalizing
  7. tantalizingly
  8. tantalizingness
  9. tantalizings
  10. Tantallon
  11. tantalocene

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tantalizing (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.

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