different between tantalize vs tentacle

English

Etymology

From Tantalus (????????) in Greek mythology, who was condemned to Tartarus in the underworld. There, he had to stand for eternity in water that receded from him when he stooped to drink, beneath fruit trees whose branches were always out of reach.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tænt?la?z/

Verb

tantalize (third-person singular simple present tantalizes, present participle tantalizing, simple past and past participle tantalized)

1. (transitive) to tease (someone) by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach
2. (transitive) to bait (someone) by showing something desirable but leaving them unsatisfied

Quotations

• 1880 — John Boyle O'Reilly, Moondyne

  They could not bear to be tantalized nor tortured by the splendid delusion.

• 1884 — Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland, section 22

  All pleasures palled upon me; all sights tantalized and tempted me to outspoken treason, because I could not but compare what I saw in Two Dimensions with what it really was if seen in Three, and could hardly refrain from making my comparisons aloud.

• “It was—simply amazing,” she repeated abstractedly. “But I swore I wouldn’t tell it and here I am tantalizing you.”

• 1936 — H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, Ch. IX

  As we threaded our dim way through the labyrinth with the aid of map and compass ... we were repeatedly tantalized by the sculptured walls along our route. ... If we had had more films, we would certainly have paused briefly to photograph certain bas-reliefs, but time-consuming hand-copying was clearly out of the question.

Related terms

• tantalizing

Translations

English

Etymology

From New Latin tent?culum, from tent?. Doublet of tentaculum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?nt?k?l/, /?t?nt?k?l/

Noun

tentacle (plural tentacles)

1. An elongated, boneless, flexible organ or limb of some animals, such as the octopus and squid.
   • 1897, H. G. Wells, The Crystal Egg

     The body was small, but fitted with two bunches of prehensile organs, like long tentacles, immediately under the mouth.

   • 1936, H. P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time

     Surmounting this head were four slender grey stalks bearing flower-like appendages, whilst from its nether side dangled eight greenish antennae or tentacles.

2. (botany) One of the glandular hairs on the leaves of certain insectivorous plants.
3. (figuratively) An insidious reach or influence.

4. (Britain, military, historical) An officer employed to drive out to troops and transmit back requests for support via a special radio link.
   • 2013, Dr Ian Gooderson, Air Power at the Battlefront (page 26)

     A joint RAF/Army staffed Air Support Control (ASC) headquarters was established at each army corps and each armoured division, linked to the forward brigades by a 'tentacle' equipped with two-way wireless telegraphy.

Synonyms

• tentaculum

Derived terms

• tentacular

Translations

Anagrams

• ectental, electant

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /t?n?ta.kl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ten?ta.kle/

Noun

tentacle m (plural tentacles)

1. tentacle

Related terms

• tentacular

Further reading

• “tentacle” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “tentacle” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “tentacle” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “tentacle” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.