tease-v; 6 Senses

Sense Number 1: Annoy, harass, or mock, perhaps playfully.

Examples:
The children teased the boy because of his stammer.
The children teased the new teacher.
The workers teased him when he wore a jacket and tie.

Mappings:
VerbNet: amuse-31.1,force-59-1
FrameNet: NP
PropBank: tease.02
WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 1, 2, 8

Sense Number 2: Arouse hope, desire, or curiousity without satisfying them.

Examples:
The advertisement is intended to tease the customers.
She has a way of teasing men with her flirtatious behavior.

Mappings:
VerbNet: NM
FrameNet: NP
PropBank: NM
WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 3

Sense Number 3: Physically separate, disentangle, or tear into pieces.

Commentary: Includes: TEASE APART

Examples:
Tease tissues for the microscopic examinations.
Tease the wool to prepare it for processing.
Sometimes you have to tease apart the yarns a little bit.

Mappings:
VerbNet: ferret-35.6
FrameNet: NP
PropBank: NM
WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 4, 5, 6, 7
WordNet Verb Particle Constructions, Multiword Expressions:
tease_apart

Sense Number 4: TEASE APART: Disambiguate or disentangle information for the purpose of identification.

Commentary: Is: TEASE APART

Examples:
Sometimes it's difficult to tease apart issues in political rhetoric.
This book could help tease apart what it takes to be a good dad.
We sought to tease apart what impact the experiment might have.

Mappings:
VerbNet: NM
FrameNet: NP
PropBank: NM

Sense Number 5: Ruffle (one's hair) by combing the ends towards the scalp, for a full effect.

Examples:
The stylist teased her hair for a half hour.
John teased his hair to make it really big.

Mappings:
VerbNet: braid-41.2.2
FrameNet: NP
PropBank: tease.03
WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 9

Sense Number 6: Extract information from someone or something.

Commentary: Includes: TEASE OUT

Examples:
Mary teased the truth from the mass of John's lies and half-truths.
He was able to tease out some truth from the opaque manuscript.
She teased the information out of him.

Mappings:
VerbNet: ferret-35.6
FrameNet: NP
PropBank: tease.01,tease.04