Forms: 1 tǽsan, 4–5 tese, 5 teese, 7 teise, 7–9 teize, teaze, 8 teez, teaz, 6– tease. [OE. tǽsan to tear or pull to pieces, tease (wool, etc.), wk. vb. = OLG. *têsan (MLG., LG. têsen, MDu. têzen, Du. teezen to draw, pall, scratch, NFris. tiese), OHG. zeisan str. vb., MHG. zeisen wk. vb., Ger. dial. (Bav.) zaisen, zeisen (Schade) to tease, pick wool:—OTeut. *taisjan and *taisan: cf. also TOASE v.]
1. trans. To separate or pull asunder the fibers of; to comb or card (wool, flax, etc.) in preparation for spinning; to open out by pulling asunder; to shred.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 112. Nim þanne wulle & tæs hy.
c. 1390[?]. Forme of Cury, in Warner, Antiq. Culin. (1791), 17. Take the brawn, and tese it smal.
14[?]. Noble Bk. Cookry (Napier, 1882), 102. Then teese the braun of capon or henn small.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Carmenar, to picke wooll, to tease wooll, carminare.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 344. Take Saffron … then tease it, I mean, pull the parts thereof asunder.
1634. Milton, Comus, 751. To ply The sampler, and to teize the huswifes wooll.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxiv. ¶ 19. [He] Teizes his Wooll, by opening all the … matted knots he finds in it.
1828. P. Cunningham, N.S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 151. While teasing out the tobacco-leaf to charge his pipe.
1851. Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal., p. iv**/2. The quick moving cards teaze out the fibres, and gradually, very gradually, disentangle them.
1875. Huxley & Martin, Elem. Biol., xi. (1876), 122. Tease out a bit of the liver in water, and examine with 1/2 obj.
1893. A. N. Palmer, Hist. Wrexham, IV. 10. The flax dressers prepared the flax for the linen spinners and weavers by ‘teasing’ it.
b. To comb the surface of cloth, after weaving, with teasels, which draw all the free hairs or fibers in one direction, so as to form a nap.
1755. Johnson, Tease,… to scratch cloth in order to level the nap.
1829. J. L. Knapp, Jrnl. Nat., 48. Many of these [teasel] heads are fixed in a frame; and with this the surface of the cloth is teased, or brushed, until all the ends are drawn out.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 172. Blankets were made of goats’-wool, teased into a satiny surface by little Teazel-like brushes of bamboo.
† c. To tear in pieces. Obs.
a. 1500. Hye Way to Spyttel H., 888, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 63. Lyke as wolues the shepe dooth take and tease.
2. To worry or irritate by persistent action which vexes or annoys; now esp. in lighter sense, to disturb by persistent petty annoyance, out of mere mischief or sport; to bother or plague in a petty way.
1627. [see TEASED 2].
1679. C. Hatton, in H. Corr. (Camden), 210. After he had thus teised them for 2 or 3 houres he left them.
1686. trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 162. Teizing me for two Hours together with a Thousand Impertinencies.
1710. Swift, Lett. (1767), III. 23. Lord Halifax is always teazing me to go down to his country house, which will cost me a guinea to his servants, and twelve shillings coach hire.
1774. Pennant, Tour Scot. in 1772, 283. The violent squalls of wind … teized us for an hour.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., IV. 74. To avoid teizing the reader with a minute description.
1782. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 8 Dec. [They] resisted reading the book till they were teased into it.
1827. D. Johnson, Ind. Field Sports, 208. A boy … was teizing the animal to make it bite him.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, I. 14. Harry ceased to tease and torment them with little tricks and devices of mischief.
fig. 1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. 54. The earth … constantly teized more to furnish … luxuries … than … necessities.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, I. 1050. I … teased The patient needle till it split the thread.
1893. Westm. Gaz., 17 Feb., 3/1. It is all done with that flowing brush…, and there is nothing teased or overworked in the whole of it.
b. absol. or intr. (With first quot., cf. TOUSE v.)
1619. Fletcher, M. Thomas, V. vii. What a coyle has this fellow kept i’ th’ Nunnery,… Pray Heavens he be not teasing.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, vi. 377. Conscious of Crimes her self, she teizes first.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 144, ¶ 6. To teize with feeble blows and impotent disturbance.
a. 1861. Mrs. Browning, Little Mattie, vii. Love both ways, kiss and tease.
3. slang. To flog. ? Obs.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Teaze, to flog or whip.
1865. [see TEASING vbl. sb.1 3].
