To tantalize someone is to hold something they badly want just close enough for them to see, smell, or almost touch it — and then keep it away. The cruelty is in the nearness: a locked cake shop window tantalizes; a cake shop in another country does not. It is used for real things (food, money, a job offer that never arrives) and for ideas (a clue that almost solves the mystery). The subject is usually the thing, not a person doing it on purpose: "the smell tantalized us", "a tantalizing possibility". When a person does it deliberately, it can sound teasing or even flirtatious. It is a slightly literary, written-feeling word — in speech people are more likely to say tease. British writing spells it tantalise, American writing tantalize; both are correct. It carries a small note of frustration that tease does not: to be tantalized is to be left wanting.

逗弄；吊胃口；可望而不可及地誘惑。台灣口語就是「吊人胃口」「看得到吃不到」。注意它不是普通的「戲弄」（那是 tease），重點在「東西就在眼前卻拿不到」的那份煎熬，多半出現在書面語。