tantalize

English

WOTD – 28 June 2006

Alternative forms

• tantalise (non-Oxford British English)

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtæntəlaɪz/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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Verb

tantalize (third-person singular simple present tantalizes, present participle tantalizing, simple past and past participle tantalized)

1. (transitive) to tease (someone) by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach
2. (transitive) to bait (someone) by showing something desirable but leaving them unsatisfied

Quotations

• 1880, John Boyle O'Reilly, “The Land of the Red Line”, in Moondyne:

  They could not bear to be tantalized nor tortured by the splendid delusion.

• 1884, Edwin Abbott Abbott, “Other Worlds”, in Flatland, § 22:

  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.

• 1895 October, Stephen Crane, chapter XV, in The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 149:

  He had been possessed of much fear of his friend, for he saw how easily questionings could make holes in his feelings. Lately, he had assured himself that the altered comrade would not tantalize him with a persistent curiosity, but he felt certain that during the first period of leisure his friend would ask him to relate his adventures of the previous day.

• 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 3, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 53:

  “It was—simply amazing,” she repeated abstractedly. “But I swore I wouldn’t tell it and here I am tantalizing you.”

• 1936, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter IX, in At the Mountains of Madness:

  As we threaded our dim way through the labyrinth with the aid of map and compass […] we were repeatedly tantalized by the sculptured walls along our route.

Related terms

• tantalizing

Translations

to tease someone by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach

• Bulgarian: дразня (bg) (draznja), измъчвам (bg) (izmǎčvam)
• Catalan: tantalitzar (ca)
• Finnish: härnätä (fi), kiusoitella (fi)
• Irish: griog, clip, beophian
• Italian: tentare (it), lusingare (it), infliggere il supplizio di tantalo, allettare (it)
• Maori: whakaminamina, whakanimanima
• Polish: mamić, nęcić (pl)
• Russian: прима́нивать (ru) (primánivatʹ), манить (ru) (manitʹ)
• Spanish: tentar (es)
• Ukrainian: вабити (uk) (vabyty), спокушати (spokušaty), манити (manyty)

to bait someone by showing something desirable but leaving them unsatisfied

• Bulgarian: залъгвам (bg) (zalǎgvam)
• Finnish: houkutella (fi)
• Italian: adescare (it)
• Ukrainian: мучити (mučyty), дражнити (dražnyty), завдавати танталових мук (zavdavaty tantalovyx muk)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} tantaliser (fr), ^{(please verify)} tenter (fr)
• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} stríða með tálvonum

Further reading

• “tantalize”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.