Verb

(teas)

To separate the fibres of a fibrous material.

To comb (originally with teasels) so that the fibres all lie in one direction.

To back-comb.

To poke fun at.

To provoke or disturb; to annoy.

* (1800-1859)

*:Hesuffered them to tease him into acts directly opposed to his strongest inclinations.

*1684 , , (Hudibras)

*:Not by the force of carnal reason, / But indefatigable teasing .

*

*:"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;."

To entice, to tempt.

Verb

(en-verb)

(obsolete) To kill.

(obsolete) To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize.

* Francis Bacon

Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine.

* Hakewill

He mortified pearls in vinegar.

(obsolete) To kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic.

*, II.3:

*:Servius the Grammarian being troubled with the gowt, found no better meanes to be rid of it, than to apply poison to mortifie his legs.

To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.

Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.

* Harte

With fasting mortified , worn out with tears.

* Prior

Mortify thy learned lust.

* Bible, Col. iii. 5

Mortify , therefore, your members which are upon the earth.

(usually, used passively) To embarrass, to humiliate.

I was so mortified I could have died right there, instead I fainted, but I swore I'd never let that happen to me again.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}

(obsolete) To affect with vexation, chagrin, or humiliation; to humble; to depress.

* Evelyn

the news of the fatal battle of Worcester, which exceedingly mortified our expectations

* Addison

How often is the ambitious man mortified with the very praises he receives, if they do not rise so high as he thinks they ought!

(Scotland, legal, historical) To grant in mortmain

* 1876 James Grant, History of the Burgh and Parish Schools of Scotland , Part II, Chapter 14, p.453 ( PDF 2.7 MB):

the schoolmasters of Ayr were paid out of the mills mortified by Queen Mary