Obs. Also 4 tayse, 5 teyse (6 teese), 7 tease, teaze. [Origin unascertained. The forms agree with those of TEISE v.1, with which however the sense does not seem compatible. Both forms and sense separate it from TEASE v., although in late use it may have been sometimes associated with the latter in its modern sense, and hence confounded in spelling with it.] trans. app. To drive (esp. a hunted beast); to chase; to urge on.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1169. Bi þay [the deer] were tened at þe hyȝe, & taysed to þe wattrez.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), xxxv. Who so be teysoures to þe kynge … as ofte as any hert cometh oute, he shulde … blowe a moot and rechate and late renne after to teyse it forth.
c. 1475. Partenay, 1295. Into see thay went, the sayl vp gan reise, To cipresse contre ther shippes gan teise.
1559. Mirr. Mag. (1562), B b ij. A shyppe vpon the stormy seas, Which … From shore to shore the wynde and tide do teese.
1615. Wither, Sheph. Hunt. III. in Juvenilia (1633), 407. My eager Dogs … Then I began with quicker speed to follow And teaz’d them on with a more cheerful hallow.
1819. Keats, Isabella, xxviii. They … did tease Their horses homeward, with convulsed spur.
[Cf. 1888. Elworthy, W. Som. Words, Tease, to drive; to harass. The only way to get rid o’ they rabbits is to keep on tazin’ o’m.]
