Cock tease (sometimes cock-tease or cocktease or also prick-tease) is derisive sexual slang used to describe a woman who acts in a sexual manner to seduce men without actually fulfilling the sexual actions. The term has been in use in Great Britain and the United States since the 19th century. More recently, it has also been used to describe a man behaving in a similar manner, especially a straight man deemed by a gay man to be behaving flirtatiously towards him with no intention of going any further.
The phrase is also used metaphorically, as an allusion to any similarly frustrating teasing done by someone else irrespective of whether it is sexual or not.
Famous quotes containing the words cock and/or tease:
“Who’ll be chief mourner?
I, said the dove,
I’ll mourn for my love,
I’ll be chief mourner.”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. Who killed Cock Robin? (L. 33–36)
“Hurt a fly!
He would not for the world: he’s pitiful
To flies even. “Sing,” says he, “and tease me still,
If that’s your way, poor insect.””
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)