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Webster 1828 Edition


Tantalizing

TAN'TALIZING

,
ppr.
Teasing or tormenting by presenting to the view some unattainable good.

Definition 2024


tantalizing

tantalizing

English

Adjective

tantalizing (comparative more tantalizing, superlative most tantalizing)

  1. Teasing; tempting, but beyond reach.
    • 1851Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Ch. 133
      ...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.

Verb

tantalizing

  1. present participle of tantalize

Translations

Noun

tantalizing (plural tantalizings)

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