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Tantalizing vs Piquant - What's the difference?

tantalizing | piquant | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between tantalizing and piquant

is that tantalizing is teasing; tempting, but beyond reach while piquant is engaging; charming.

As a verb tantalizing

is present participle of lang=en.

tantalizing

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Teasing; tempting, but beyond reach.
  • * 1851 — , Ch. 133
  • *:...then it was that monomaniac Ahab, furious with this tantalizing vicinity of his foe, which placed him all alive and helpless in the very jaws he hated; frenzied with all this, he seized the long bone with his naked hands, and wildly strove to wrench it from its gripe.
  • Verb

    (head)
  • piquant

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Engaging; charming.
  • Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; stimulating.
  • * 2000 , Lynn Bedford Hall, Best of Cooking in South Africa (page 2000)
  • These chops are baked in a piquant sauce containing fruit, honey, cinnamon, lemon and port, all of which reduces to a spicy syrup.
  • * 2005 , Clifford A. Wright, Some like it hot: spicy favorites from the world's hot zones
  • Elsewhere in South America, excepting Bahia in Brazil, one does not encounter piquant cuisine, although one may stumble on a piquant dish now and then...
  • * 2009 , Sara Engra, Katie Luber, Kimberly Toqe, The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices (page 9)
  • French charcuterie relies on cloves in the quatre épices, or four-spice powder, for seasoning fine sausages and piquant marinades.
  • (archaic) Causing hurt feelings; scathing.