| 释义 |
tantalize, v.|ˈtæntəlaɪz|
[f. Tantal-us + -ize. So mod.F. tantaliser (Littré Suppl.).]
1. trans. To subject to torment like that inflicted on Tantalus; to torment by the sight, show, or promise of a desired thing which is kept out of reach, or removed or withheld when on the point of being grasped. Also absol.
1597Tofte Laura iii. xii, Ah doo not still my soule thus Tantalize, But once (through grace) the same imparadize. 1646Trapp Comm. John vi. 55 Our Richard II. was starved at Pomfret Castle by being tantalized. 1784King Cook's Voy. Pacific Ocean vi. ix. III. 432, I should otherwise have felt exceedingly tantalized with living under the walls of so great a city, full of objects of novelty, without being able to enter it. 1803Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) II. 461, I was tantalized all the morning with the sight of the enemy's camp, pitched at the distance of twenty miles. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. iv. 36 The mirage..which so tantalized the French soldiers in Egypt.
b. fig. To tease or torture into an artificial form.
1807Crabbe Parish Reg. iii. 217 Where those dark shrubs that now grow wild at will, Were clipt in form and tantaliz'd with skill. 1897Westm. Gaz. 25 Mar. 3/2 Chiffon tantalised into a hundred tucks bristling all over the brim and the crown.
†2. intr. To act Tantalus, to suffer like Tantalus.
1640Fuller Joseph's Coat, Comm. 1 Cor. xi. 20 The poor people in Corinth did see, and smell, what the rich men tasted; Tantalizing all the while, and having their penury doubled by the ‘antiperistasis’ of other's plenty. 1648E. Sparke Pref. to Shute's Sarah & Hagar b j b, But, not to tell you of a Banquet, and make you Tantalize. 1673Ess. Educ. Gentlewom. 25 Men are very cruel..; to make any thus to tantalize is a great torment.
Hence ˈtantalized ppl. a., ˈtantalizing vbl. n.
1640Nabbes Bride iv. iii, To have seen this wench and not to enjoy her is such a tantalizing to me. 1659Gentl. Calling v. (1696) 64 A sort of Tantalized creatures, not peculiar only to this latter age. 1694Motteux Rabelais v. xvi. (1737) 72 Without any long..Tantalizing in the Case. |