tantalize

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To tease someone by showing or offering something they want but cannot have.

   The smell of fresh bread tantalized the hungry travellers.

From Tantalus (Ancient Greek Τάνταλος (Tántalos)) in Greek mythology, who was condemned to Tartarus in the underworld. There, he had to stand for eternity in water that receded from him when he stooped to drink, beneath fruit trees whose branches were always out of reach. Derived as Tantalus + -ize.

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