▪ I. teasing, vbl. n.1
(ˈtiːzɪŋ)
[f. tease v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of tease v.1
1. a. The pulling asunder of the fibres of wool, hair, animal tissue, etc.: see tease v.1 1. Also attrib., as teasing-needle.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Carmenadura, teasing, carminatio. 1851 Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal. p. iv**/1 The web of cleaned cotton..is passed through a lapping machine, and..undergoes a further teazing. 1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 118 The cells have been separated by teasing. 1891 Cent. Dict., Teasing-needle, a needle for teasing, or tearing into minute shreds, a specimen for microscopic examination. |
b. U.S. Hairdressing. Back-combing; also, a similar treatment given with a small brush.
| 1923 F. Korf Art & Fundamentals of Hairdressing II. ii. 31 The public seems to fear the back-combing, or as it is often called, teasing of the hair, perhaps with some justification. 1964 D. Z. Hanle Hairdo Handbk. vii. 71 Properly done, teasing can play an important part in finishing a hairstyle... Use a small..teasing brush. 1975 C. Calasibetta Fairchild's Dict. Fashion 260/1 Bouffant, hair exaggeratedly puffed out by means of teasing. |
2. Petty irritation: see tease v.1 2.
| 1678 Butler Hud. iii. ii. 452 Not by the force of Carnal Reason, But indefatigable Teazing. 1731 Swift On Pulteney 1 Sir Robert weary'd by Will Pulteney's teazings. 1858 Doran Crt. Fools 212 He was compelled to endure the teazing of the domestics. |
3. slang. A flogging: see tease v.1 3. ? Obs.
| 1807 H. Tufts in E. Pearson Autobiogr. of Criminal (1930) ii. iv. 292 Teasing, whipping. 1821 P. Egan Life in London i. 11 The innumerable teazings thou hast book'd. 1865 Daily Tel. 27 Oct. 5/2 ‘When I've had another teasing,’ said a boy thief..alluding to the hangman and his cat, ‘I shall be as good as Tommy So-and-So’. |
▪ II. ˈteasing, vbl. n.2 local.
[f. tease v.2 + -ing1.]
The keeping up of the fire in a furnace. In quot. attrib.
| 1894 Northumbld. Gloss. s.v. Teaser, The glass-house teasers wore broad-brimmed felt hats..to protect them from the scorching fires. They also wore ‘hand-hats’ of thick felt, to enable them to hold the long iron teasing pokers. |
▪ III. ˈteasing, ppl. a.
[f. tease v.1 + -ing2.]
That teases; pettily irritating, annoying, or vexatious.
| 1694 Addison Ovid's Met. ii. Coronis 19 And by a thousand teizing questions drew The important secret from him. 1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 311 She complains of a teazing cough. 1847 Helps Friends in C. I. iii. 34 This is better than to be the sport of a teasing hope without reason. |
Hence ˈteasingly adv., in a teasing manner.
| 1754 Richardson Grandison (1781) IV. xxviii. 206 You are disposed to be teazingly facetious. 1906 Athenæum 17 Mar. 321/3 He never becomes teasingly minute. |