tease

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tesen, also tesien,^[2][3] inherited from Old English tǣsan (“to pluck, pull apart, tear; to comb wool”),^[4][5][6][7] from Proto-West Germanic *taisjan,^[6][8] which Etymonline gives as Proto-Germanic *taisijan.^[4] It is cognate with tēsen, tezen (“to draw, pull, scratch”), tæse and zeisan (“to pick or tease wool”).^[4][6][3] The same base gave teasel, the plant whose prickly heads were used to card wool,^[8][9] and Klein and Partridge relate it to touse and tousle.^[10][11] Barnhart compares an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *dāi- (“to divide”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To separate or pull apart the fibres of wool or flax before spinning; to comb or card: Old English, in the Saxon Leechdoms,^[5] about 1000 according to Barnhart.^[3] The Middle English verb is recorded from about 1290.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline describes the original action as running thorns through wool or flax to separate the fibres.^[4] From the 17th century the word was used figuratively for worrying or annoying someone by persistent petty actions, from 1619 in Barnhart^[3] and 1627 in the OED;^[5] Ayto sees here the notion of irritating someone with prickles, and the sense gradually weakened to "make fun of".^[8] Barnhart and Etymonline compare the similar development of heckle.^[3][4] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: to comb wool or flax, to scratch cloth to raise the nap, and to torment with importunity.^[12] The sexual sense, to arouse desire without meaning to satisfy it, is recorded from 1694.^[5] The noun, an act of teasing, is from 1693, in Cotton Mather,^[5][3] and a person who teases from 1852, in Dickens's Bleak House.^[5][3][4] The 20th century brought backcombing hair (1957),^[5][4] tease out, to extract by patient effort (1959),^[5] and short for striptease (1927).^[5][4] In slang to tease once meant to flog.^[13][5]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English tǣsan, to pull apart fibres.^[3][5]
• c. 1290 – Middle English tesien.^[3]
• 1619 – to vex or annoy.^[3]
• 1693 – noun, an act of teasing.^[5][3]
• 1694 – to arouse sexual desire without satisfying it.^[5]
• 1755 – to raise the nap of cloth with teasels.^[5]
• 1852 – noun, a person who teases.^[5][4]
• 1927 – to perform a striptease; noun, a striptease.^[5]
• 1957 – to backcomb hair.^[5][4]
• 1959 – tease out, to extract by careful effort.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make fun of or annoy someone playfully or unkindly, especially by ridicule: His sisters teased him about his new haircut.^[14][5]
2. To tempt or provoke someone, especially to arouse sexual desire without intending to satisfy it.^[14][5]
3. To annoy someone by offering something and then delaying or withdrawing the offer.^[14]
4. To separate the fibres of wool or flax; to comb or card.^[14][15][5]
5. To raise the nap of cloth with a teasel.^[14][15][5]
6. (chiefly US) To backcomb the hair to give it more volume.^[14][5]
7. tease out: to separate or extract something by patient effort: The study tries to tease out the causes of the decline.^[5]

Noun

1. A person who teases, especially one who flirts without serious intent.^[5][15]
2. An act of teasing.^[5][15]
3. A striptease.^[5]

Word family

• teasingly
• teasable
• teasableness
• striptease
• unteased
• teaser
• tease out

Related words

• teasel
• touse
• tousle

Usage notes

Two further verbs of the same spelling are minor: tease, to feed a glass furnace with fuel, from tiser, short for attiser (“to stir up a fire”) (1818),^[5][15] and an archaic tease, to urge on, an alteration of Middle English taysen.^[15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster