What is tease?

Famous quotes containing the word tease:

“Hurt a fly!
He would not for the world: he’s pitiful
To flies even. “Sing,” says he, “and tease me still,
If that’s your way, poor insect.””
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

“We make ourselves a place apart
Behind light words that tease and flout,
But oh, the agitated heart
Till someone really find us out.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)

“It has been played once more. I think you exist only
To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren’t there
Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem
Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)