v. [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.
1597. Tofte, Laura, III. xii. Ah doo not still my soule thus Tantalize, But once (through grace) the same imparadize.
1639. G. Plattes, Disc. of Infinite Treasure, ix. 61. I love not to Tantalize men with vaine hopes.
1646. Trapp, Comm. John vi. 55. Our Richard II. was starved at Pomfret Castle by being tantalized.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, III. 216.
| What tho’ Armida’s Looks be kind, | |
| And you read Yielding in her Eyes; | |
| Yet you alas! may quickly find, | |
| Those Charms do nought but tantalize. |
1784. King, 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.
1803. Wellington, 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.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. iv. 36. The mirage … which so tantalized the French soldiers in Egypt.
b. fig. To tease or torture into an artificial form.
1807. Crabbe, Parish Reg., III. 217. Where those dark shrubs that now grow wild at will, Were clipt in form and tantaliz’d with skill.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 25 March, 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.
1640. Fuller, 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.
1648. E. Sparke, Pref. to Shute’s Sarah & Hagar, b j b. But, not to tell you of a Banquet, and make you Tantalize.
1673. Ess. Educ. Gentlewom., 25. Men are very cruel…; to make any thus to tantalize is a great torment.
Hence Tantalized ppl. a., Tantalizing vbl. sb.
1640. Nabbes, Bride, IV. iii. To have seen this wench and not to enjoy her is such a tantalizing to me.
1659. Gentl. Calling, v. (1696), 64. A sort of Tantalized creatures, not peculiar only to this latter age.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xvi. (1737), 72. Without any long … Tantalizing in the Case.
