Definition

To tantalize means to tease or torment someone with the promise of something that is desirable but unattainable. It involves presenting someone with something that they want, only to keep it out of their reach, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Pronunciation

US English

UK English


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Excerpts from News Articles

1

But with most work being done on neutral-tasting species that can be adapted to a variety of foods, hundreds of thousands of microalgae species remain untapped -- and new research is showing they contain a range of tantalizing tastes that could sweeten the deal for future consumers.

Logo 2023-04-12 CNN News

2

If the establishments were open during the day, Prost would enter and ask for permission to take photos in order "to not look suspicious... and explain what my intentions were," he said. The interiors rarely lived up to the tantalizing promises plastered across the signs outside, but the photographer met a host of characters during his five-week trip, from indifferent bouncers to managers who were thrilled about the project.

Logo 2023-04-18 CNN News

3

EnergyX has said its technology can make lithium metal directly from brine, a tantalizing prospect for GM that could let the automaker bypass lithium refining, which is widely seen as a key supply-chain bottleneck.

Logo 2023-04-11 Reuters

4

“To the trained eye of a Russian war planner, field general or intelligence analyst … the documents no doubt offer many tantalizing clues and insights,” the Times said.

Logo 2023-04-07 Al Jazeera

5

Gialich is the co-founder of a startup called AstroForge, which aims to mine platinum from asteroids, process the materials in space and then sell the refined commodities back on Earth. It’s a venture that has the potential to be wildly lucrative, but it’s also one that for decades has seen its share of attempts and failures — remaining a tantalizing but elusive prospect for innovators and investors alike.

Logo 2023-04-09 MSNBC News

6

Episode 3 – “The Locked Room” may be the season’s greatest. It certainly ends on one of the most terrifying still-frames I’ve ever encountered in TV – a haunting slow zoom towards “the monster at the end of it”, in which we see a machete-wielding, gasmask-wearing scary bastard which is the perfect way to end an episode on a tantalizing and terrifying high.

Logo 2023-04-12 EURO News

7

Alex Scarrow’s Candle Man combines the Titanic with other historical events, offering the tantalizing premise that, as the ship was going down, a man revealed the truth about the identity of Jack the Ripper. That was an instant purchase, at least for me, Jack the Ripper of course being the source for even more books, movies and documentaries than the doomed ocean liner.

Logo 2023-04-14 Literary Hub

8

An obvious and tantalizing next question is whether these oceans can support extraterrestrial life. Liquid water is an important piece of what makes for a habitable world, but far from the only requirement for life. Life also needs energy and certain chemical compounds in addition to water to flourish. Because these oceans are hidden beneath miles of solid ice, sunlight and photosynthesis are out. But it’s possible other sources could provide the needed ingredients.

Logo 2023-04-10 The Conversation

9

An obvious and tantalizing next question is whether these oceans can support extraterrestrial life. Liquid water is an important piece of what makes for a habitable world, but far from the only requirement for life. Life also needs energy and certain chemical compounds in addition to water to flourish. Because these oceans are hidden beneath miles of solid ice, sunlight and photosynthesis are out. But it’s possible other sources could provide the needed ingredients.

Logo 2023-04-10 The Conversation

10

Despite such tantalizing leads, CS-23 claims senior FBI officials suppressed further investigations into the CIA’s relationship with Bayoumi and the recruitment of Hazmi and Midhar, and Bureau representatives testifying before the joint Senate and Congressional inquiry into 9/11 were instructed not to reveal the full extent of Saudi involvement with Al-Qaeda.

Logo 2023-04-12 RT News

11

"The aromas, sizzling sounds and tantalizing flavors of the food being prepared before your eyes create a truly immersive experience. The service not only frees me from cooking, but also offers good chances to try new dishes without going out," said Beijing resident Gu Ming in her review of a recent on-demand home-cooking order placed on Xiaohongshu.

Logo 2023-04-18 China Daily

12

Meanwhile, researchers at Yale have discovered a separate fungus with tantalizing abilities to break down polyurethane. It will be awhile, Blum says, but “really cool” technology based on plastic-eating mushrooms could be in our future.

Logo 2023-04-22 CNN News

13

It is tantalizing , with regard to Shakespearean dramaturgy, to note that opera was born in Florence in 1600—about the time that Hamlet first voiced Shakespeare’s views on acting. Shakespeare and the theorists of opera expressed similar concerns about language and performance.


14

My eyes ablaze while writing, window cracked to enjoy the tantalizing springtime temperatures, it has been a long and painful season for allergy sufferers across the D.C. region. You might think we would be pros at this point. The first of two tree-pollen peaks arrived in the back half of February, then it simmered for a while.

Logo 2023-04-19 The Washington Post

15

It makes sense that Hollywood would want to bring Daphne du Maurier’s tantalizing 1938 gothic novel to a new generation of viewers, but giving it the glossy Netflix treatment is a complete waste of source material (and presumably {$}{$}). It’s not dark enough, not strange enough, not sexy enough.

Logo 2023-04-25 Literary Hub

16

In 22 words, he conveys his trademark self-pity, self-aggrandisement and capacity for tying himself into pompous knots: ‘The life I have is hard, but I got to choose it, and the road that brought me here I did not,’ Maugham writes in Bringing Down Goliath. It certainly acts as a tantaliser . If this is only the first sentence, what other jewels are contained in the remaining 318 pages?

Logo 2023-04-25 The Spectator

17

Treasures in the room include an old wedding gown and a collection of rare books, one containing a tantalizing inscription. Trying to put her life and hear heart back together, Addie ends up working on an old murder case and a new one, all the while unraveling the threads of her family’s mysterious and possibly shocking past.

Logo 2023-04-26 Literary Hub

18

Anyone who has tuned in to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has seen a tantalizing glimpse of what the capital Baku has to offer. The race, which takes place downtown, whips through the city streets taking in sights both ancient and modern in a nation that’s on the move.

Logo 2023-04-27 CNN News

19

When Greta runs into the woman in real life, they begin an affair made particularly volatile by the fact that Greta secretly knows everything about the woman. I mean, who wouldn’t be tantalized by a plot like that?

Logo 2023-04-27 Literary Hub

20

No longer tantalizing readers by shrouding Parrott’s identity in mystery, the marketers of “Ex-Wife” now strived to make the attractive young author synonymous with her creation, insinuating that her novel was a barely veiled memoir.

Logo 2023-05-03 The New Yorker

21

If the older galleries are built around monumental objects and chronological narratives, the new ones mimic social media’s traffic in bite-size morsels of fascinating stuff. The glass walls of the collections’ storage feature myriad small displays of tantalizing objects — dishware from Maoist China, the skeleton of a giant grouper, astronomical instruments and maps, drawings and documents from various exhibitions.

Logo 2023-05-04 The Washington Post

22

The moon was stuck like the whorl of a frozen fingerprint to the skylight.” That tantalizing initial hint at the impossible is all the science fiction we get in this story—a time machine of a different kind. Famished from their labors, the narrator and his fellow scientists decamp to a Chinese laundry-turned-restaurant where they pour over the endless menu of esoteric delicacies, before returning to the sight of their laboratory in flames.

Logo 2023-05-05 Literary Hub

23

Much of the recent focus has been on advances in so-called generative AI, which offers tantalizing prospects of efficiency for employers but also the threat of upheaval for certain white-collar and creative industries, where unions have significant sway. The technology is based on machine learning models, through which it can produce something new, including lucid text, based on patterns drawn from a pool of existing information.

Logo 2023-05-06 Politico

24

He turned up at the coronation knowing that, his father and stepmother aside, he would be the most scrutinised person there, and that every single detail of his behaviour would be analysed for giveaway clues as to his inner psyche; even his small talk with his neighbours would be passed over to lip readers, desperate to find some tiny crumb of gossip or revelation to tantalise the media with. And he behaved, to my mind, impeccably.

Logo 2023-05-07 The Spectator

25

This does raise the tantalizing yet distant prospect that if allowed to leave house arrest, they could be sitting next to each other in the Parliament’s chamber.

Logo 2023-05-09 Politico

26

Through a heady mix of cutting-edge technology and a deep respect for traditions, Seoul has become one of the 21st century’s most tantalizing and important cities.

Logo 2023-05-09 CNN News

27

This presents a tantalizing opportunity, but so far we are largely failing to take advantage of it. We must change the way we think about neurodegenerative diseases. By 2050, 152 million people around the world could be living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

Logo 2023-05-12 CNN News

28

It’s also changing the landscape of get-rich-quick schemes. Online influencers have seized on the idea that ChatGPT is an all-powerful technology that offers a tantalizing path to easy money. A host of YouTubers and TikTokers who specialize in personal-finance content now make videos advertising a single premise: Let ChatGPT create a business, while you sit back and gain financial freedom.

Logo 2023-05-15 The Washington Post

29

It was tantalizing to imagine the evenings she might have had in those clothes, getting ready in her onetime apartment in the Chelsea Hotel and charging out into the night. Boardman’s space was filled with the costume jewelry he’s known for layering over Ralph Lauren polos, as well as a Charles and Diana tea towel from his beloved collection of royals memorabilia.

Logo 2023-05-15 The Washington Post

30

“The possibility that just by protecting the entorhinal cortex, even if you have a lot of Alzheimer’s pathology elsewhere, you can have that protection? Wouldn’t that be amazing? That’s what’s very tantalizing ,” Arboleda-Velasquez said.

Logo 2023-05-15 The Washington Post

31

The tantalizing possibility that subtle quantum effects can tweak biological processes presents both an exciting frontier and a challenge to scientists. Studying quantum mechanical effects in biology requires tools that can measure the short time scales, small length scales and subtle differences in quantum states that give rise to physiological changes – all integrated within a traditional wet lab environment.

Logo 2023-05-15 The Conversation