Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Teasing; tempting, but beyond reach.
  • verb Present participle of tantalize.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective very pleasantly inviting
  • adjective arousing desire or expectation for something unattainable or mockingly out of reach

Etymologies

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Examples

  • NASA says it has made what it terms a tantalizing discovery about the planet Mars.

    CNN Transcript Dec 7, 2006 2006

  • Don Crutchfield is a window-peeping kid private-eye within tantalizing reach of right-wing assassins, left-wing revolutionaries and the power-mongers of an incendiary era.

    Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy: Book summary 2010

  • A possible connection to Arnondusmatijs, though tantalizing, is probably coincidence, since Elandsfontein was a common name, given to at least eight other farms in addition to Kok's (L. Guelke RLR data). back

    Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

  • I should have known: I'm using the word tantalizing in all seriousness.

    Bad hair day. Ann Althouse 2007

  • I smiled, shrugged my shoulders in tantalizing repetition of my former action upon a like occasion and then answered brusquely:

    The Filigree Ball 1903

  • As such, it is accorded special procedural shortcuts: it requires only a simple majority vote in both chambers of Congress, and, tantalizing from the administration’s standpoint, Senate rules permit just twenty hours of debate, so the bill can’t be filibustered.

    Take Two: Hillary's Choice 2006

  • As such, it is accorded special procedural shortcuts: it requires only a simple majority vote in both chambers of Congress, and, tantalizing from the administration’s standpoint, Senate rules permit just twenty hours of debate, so the bill can’t be filibustered.

    Take Two: Hillary's Choice 2006

  • As such, it is accorded special procedural shortcuts: it requires only a simple majority vote in both chambers of Congress, and, tantalizing from the administration’s standpoint, Senate rules permit just twenty hours of debate, so the bill can’t be filibustered.

    Take Two: Hillary's Choice 2006

  • Ooooo who doesn't want to be called a tantalizing treat by Miss Snark!

    The Slush pile turns up a tantalizing treat Miss Snark 2006

  • They only served to recall the tantalizing, broken bits that the records give of the picturesque life that was here -- of colonial pomp and savage dignity, of London trade and Indian barter, of English games and merriment, of colonial trials and tragedies: all this of which we know, yet know so little.

    Virginia: the Old Dominion Cortelle Hutchins

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