teascent (tesent)

A European fern, Ne phrodium montanum. tea-scrub (tē'skrub), n. A New Zealand shrub, Leptospermum scoparium. See tea - tree, 2. The river Street found its way to the sea in long reaches, which were walled in, to the very water's edge, by what is called in the colony teascrub -a shrub not very unlike the tamarisk. H. Kingsley, Hillyars and Burtons, xxi. tease (tēz), v. t.; pret. and pp. teased, ppr. teas ing. (Formerly also teaze, teize, eize, also dial. tose; Milton , Comus, 1. 751. In teased preparations small collections of granular matter were, however, sometimes seen at the external openings of these bodies. E. A. Andrews , Anat. of Sipunculus Gouldii Pour tales [(Studies from the Biol. Laboratory, IV. 394). Knot the filling, tease the ends of the nettles out a bit. Luce , Seamanship, p. 56. 2. To dre , as cloth, by means of teazels.-3. To vex, annoy, disturb, or irritate by petty re- quests, by silly trifling, or by jests and raillery; plague with questions, importunity, insinua- tions, raillery, or the like. You remember how impertinently he follow'd and teized us, and wou'd know who we were. Steele, Conscious Lovers, i. 1. If you are so often teased to shut the door that you cannot easily forget it, then give the door such a clap as you go out as will shake the whole room. Swift , Advice to Servants (General Directions). Don't tease me, master broker; I tell you I'll not part with it, and there's an end of it. Sheridan , School for Scandal, iv. 1. =Syn. 3. Tease, Vex, Annoy, Molest, Badger , Pester , Bother , Worry , Plague , Torment . All these words either may or must refer to repeated acts; they all suggest mental pain, but of degrees varying with the word or with the circumstances; all except badger and molest may be used reflexively, but with different degrees of appropriatene , vex, worry, and torment being the most common in such use; the agent may be a person, or, except with badger , it may be a creature, events, circumstances, etc.; it would be clearly figurative to use tease when the agent is not a person; all except tease are always used seriously. Tease is not a strong word, but has considerable breadth of use: a child may tease his mother for what he desires; there is a great deal of good-humored teasing of friends about their matrimonial intentions; a fly may tease a dog by continually waking him up. Vex is stronger, literally implying anger and figuratively applying to repeated attacks, etc., such as would produce an excitement as strong as anger. In Shakspere's "still-vex'd Bermoothes" (Tempest, i. 2. 229), the use of vex is somewhat poetic or archaic, as is the application of the word to the continued agitation of the sea. Annoy has a middle degree of strength between tease and vex ; a feeling of annoyance is somewhat short of vexation . We may be annoyed by the persistence of flies, beggars, duns, suitors, picket-firing, etc. Molest is generally a stronger word in its expre ion of harm done or intended, including the sense of disturbing once or often: some wild animals will not molest those who do not molest them. The next four words have a homely force- badger being founded upon the baiting of a badger by dogs, and thus implying persistence, energy, and some rudene ; pester implying similar persistence and much small vexation; bother implying wearine and perhaps confusion of the mind; and worry implying actual fatigue and even exhaustion. Plague and torment are strong by the figurative extension of their primary meaning, al though they are often used by hyperbole for that which is intolerable only by constant return: as, a tormenting fly. See exasperate and hara .