tease

Use the verb "tease" when one person bothers another person by saying something that causes discomfort. Children often tease each other, but adults are guilty of doing a lot of teasing also. Generally, it’s not nice to tease another person; however, it’s acceptable among friends and family.

• All the kids at school teased Hugo about his new haircut.
• Rosa is afraid that her friends will tease her about the backpack her mother bought for her.
• It’s not nice to tease someone who is easily hurt by the teasing.
• Bill and Jake tease each other all the time, but they’re still good friends.
• Sarah teased her little brother until he started to cry.
• My students used to tease me about my old car.

One other way of using "tease" is when a small amount of information increases a person’s curiosity:

• The newscast teased it’s viewers by announcing an upcoming story about a bikini contest.
• The grocery store likes to tease customers with coupons and sales, but overall the prices there are kind of high.
• Linda likes to tease men by wearing skimpy clothing. (skimpy = not much)

The children teased the man because the clothes that he wore were foreign and unfashionable.

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Published August 30, 2014