tantalization

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the act of harassing someone playfully or maliciously (especially by ridicule); provoking someone with persistent annoyances

From tantalize + -ation.

Like many excellent people, he seemed possessed with a spirit of tantalization, which might easily, at a casual glance, have been mistaken for malevolence. — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition: Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes, Edgar Allan Poe
Wonderment as to the next move partook less of deep anxiety than of the tantalization of guessing at a riddle with the answer always just eluding you. — The Long Roll, Mary Johnston
And this thought it must have been which suggested to Ahab that wild exclamation of his, when one morning turning away from surveying poor Queequeg—“Oh, devilish tantalization of the gods!” — Moby Dick; Or, The Whale, Herman Melville

tease, teasing, ribbing

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