Tease

[Hundred]

montrealgazette.com/news/Wisconsin+Paul+Ryan+will+Romney+running+mate/7076699/story.html

"The vice-presidential selection will dominate headlines, and Romney's team relentlessly teased the announcement for weeks."

I understand "to tease people" to mean "to annoy them and make jokes about them." But what is "to tease an announcement"? Should it be corrected to "tease people about an announcement"?

 

[emsr2d2]

I would have expected it to say "teased us with" or something similar, but I agree that "teased the announcement" doesn't make sense. You can't tease an announcement.

 

[Amigos4]

montrealgazette.com/news/Wisconsin+Paul+Ryan+will+Romney+running+mate/7076699/story.html

"The vice-presidential selection will dominate headlines, and Romney's team relentlessly teased the announcement for weeks."

I understand "to tease people" to mean "to annoy them and make jokes about them." But what is "to tease an announcement"? Should it be corrected to "tease people about an announcement"?

Webster: tease: to tantalize especially by arousing desire or curiosity often without intending to satisfy it.

Governor Romney wanted to gain as much attention as he could without actually announcing his choice.

 

[emsr2d2]

Webster: tease: to tantalize especially by arousing desire or curiosity often without intending to satisfy it.

Governor Romney wanted to gain as much attention as he could without actually announcing his choice.

I don't think the definition of "tease" is in question, and the connotation fits the sentence perfectly. However, one can only tease people and animals. You cannot directly tease an inanimate object like an announcement. He teased the people by not announcing his running mate.

 

[charliedeut]

I don't think the definition of "tease" is in question, and the connotation fits the sentence perfectly. However, one can only tease people and animals. You cannot directly tease an inanimate object like an announcement. He teased the people by not announcing his running mate.

Hi,

I think this use of 'tease' might be derived from movies' 'teasers' in the sense of givin the audience very little information about whatever it is (a movie or a decision on his running companion) to make people eager to see what's coming next (the movie or the decision itself).

charliedeut

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi,

I think this use of 'tease' might be derived from movies' 'teasers' in the sense of givin the audience very little information about whatever it is (a movie or a decision on his running companion) to make people eager to see what's coming next (the movie or the decision itself).

charliedeut

I agree that it is being used in the same way, but a teaser teases the audience. The director or film company teases the public by showing a teaser. You don't "tease a movie".

 

[TheParser]

"The vice-presidential selection will dominate headlines, and Romney's team relentlessly teased the announcement for weeks."

NOT A TEACHER


Hello, Hundred:

May I add my two bits to the other posters' excellent comments?

After doing some Googling, I would like to offer these thoughts (not "answers") to the discussion.

1. As you said, maybe the "correct" way is to say "The team teased the public about the announcement for weeks."

2. Here in the United States (judging from Google results), the term "to tease an announcement, news item, etc."

seems to be accepted by many people.

3. As you know, in journalism, it's necessary to grab people's attention. So headlines and even sentences are often

shortened. Nowadays, we are told, people have a very short attention span.

4. Thus, to "tease an announcement" sounds fine. We all know what it means. And, as we are constantly told,

language is always changing. (For example, some people went bananas when "hopefully" entered the language as a

sentence modifier: "Hopefully, I have given you some ideas to consider." Today most Americans have no trouble with it.

Who wants to write: "It is to be hoped that I ...."?

5. When I turn on the TV news, they are always "teasing the news":

"When we return from the commercial, we'll have a story about X's latest boyfriend. And his big secret! Something that he has kept secret -- until today! [commercial starts playing]


HAVE A NICE DAY!