tease
part of speech
verb (tease, teases, teased, teasing); noun (a tease, teases)
meaning for a pupil
1) To tease someone means to laugh at them or make jokes about them, in a friendly way or an unkind way. tree →
2) To tease an animal means to annoy it on purpose. tree →
3) A tease is a person who likes to tease others. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school and feelings, friendly teasing is gentle and fun for both sides; teasing that hurts, is about looks, families or differences, or keeps going after «stop» is unkind and can be bullying — tell an adult. In safety, teasing animals (poking, pulling tails, waving food) can make them angry and bite or scratch. In stories, brothers and sisters tease each other. «Just teasing!» says you didn't mean it seriously.
examples
- My big brother likes to tease me. tree →
- Don't tease the dog; it might bite. tree →
- They teased him about his new haircut. tree →
- I was only teasing; I'm sorry. tree →
- Stop teasing your sister! tree →
- It's unkind to tease someone about their name. tree →
- She's such a tease! tree →
note
Regular verb: teased, teasing (drop the e). Noun «teasing». If someone says «stop», it is time to stop. Do not confuse «tease» with «tees» (golf tees) or «teas».
In the corpora
- Grown-ups also tease children about girlfriends and crushes, and older people sometimes find new partners late in life.
- Teasing people about who they like can stop them being friends at all.
- The two friends tease him by saying his Mother's advice back to him all jumbled up, until his head spins.
- Teasing an animal is unkind and can teach it to bite or scratch.
- To fancy someone means to like them in a special way; chanting it at someone is teasing.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «tease» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.