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tempt

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To try to get (someone) to do wrong, especially by a promise of reward. synonym: lure.
  • intransitive verb To be inviting or attractive to.
  • intransitive verb To provoke or to risk provoking.
  • intransitive verb To cause to be strongly disposed.
  • intransitive verb To be attractive or inviting.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An attempt.
  • To put to trial; try; test; put to the test.
  • To entice; attract; allure; invite; induce; incline; dispose; incite.
  • To incite or entice to evil; entice to something wrong by presenting arguments that are plausible or convincing, or by the offer of some pleasure or apparent advantage as the inducement; seduce.
  • To provoke; defy; act presumptuously toward.
  • To attempt; endeavor to do, accomplish, or reach; venture on.
  • Synonyms and To lure, inveigle, decoy, bait, bribe.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To put to trial; to prove; to test; to try.
  • transitive verb To lead, or endeavor to lead, into evil; to entice to what is wrong; to seduce.
  • transitive verb To endeavor to persuade; to induce; to invite; to incite; to provoke; to instigate.
  • transitive verb To endeavor to accomplish or reach; to attempt.

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

  • verb transitive To provoke someone to do wrong, especially by promising a reward; to entice.
  • verb transitive To attract; to allure.
  • verb transitive To provoke something; to court.

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

  • verb give rise to a desire by being attractive or inviting
  • verb dispose or incline or entice to
  • verb induce into action by using one's charm
  • verb try presumptuously
  • verb provoke someone to do something through (often false or exaggerated) promises or persuasion
  • verb try to seduce

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English tempten, from Old French tempter, from Latin temptāre, to feel, try.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French tempter (French: tenter), from Latin temptare, more correctly tentare ("to handle, touch, try, test, tempt"), frequentative of tenere ("to hold"). Displaced native Old English costning ("temptation").

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Examples

  • 16 Disappointment might urge the flatterer to secret revenge; and the first glance of favor might again tempt him to suspend and suppress a libel, 17 in which the Roman Cyrus is degraded into an odious and contemptible tyrant, in which both the emperor and his consort Theodora are seriously represented as two daemons, who had assumed a human form for the destruction of mankind.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Delays in product recalls tempt tragedyThe Los Angeles Times Mega Brands agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.1 million last week in connection with a defective toy that caused the death of a toddler.

    This week in safety: Power on (safely), dude 2009

  • Delays in product recalls tempt tragedyThe Los Angeles Times Mega Brands agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.1 million last week in connection with a defective toy that caused the death of a toddler.

    This week in safety: Power on (safely), dude 2009

  • These labels tempt children with free gifts and seduce them to be loyal consumers of a particular product.

    Trans Fats M.A. Judith Shaw 2004

  • These labels tempt children with free gifts and seduce them to be loyal consumers of a particular product.

    Trans Fats M.A. Judith Shaw 2004

  • These labels tempt children with free gifts and seduce them to be loyal consumers of a particular product.

    Trans Fats M.A. Judith Shaw 2004

  • _I answer that, _ Properly speaking, to tempt is to test the person tempted.

    Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas

  • For to tempt is to make an experiment, which is not done save in regard to something unknown.

    Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition Aquinas Thomas

  • Web is haven for student plagiarism | Record labels tempt iTunes users

    ENN.ie 2009

  • By "tempt" I mean "when we were in New York and taking the train out to Sunnybrook, we went by a number of stations that had X3 posters, and I was tempted to get off and steal one of the Wolvie ones and if I'd seen a Rogue one I think I might actually have done it", so while there is no earthly need for a 4x6 poster, I, er, bid on it anyway.

    terrible geek 2006

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