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taunt
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show 188 more with this conextual meaning
  • Maybe it's why he stood there and taunted Roland.   (source)
    taunted = mocked or insulted to intentionally challenge or upset
  • "Hand it over, Malfoy," said Percy sternly.
    "When I've had a look," said Malfoy, waving the diary tauntingly at Harry.   (source)
    tauntingly = in a manner that intentionally angers, challenges, or upsets someone
  • Even though they outnumbered us, they were enjoying the game of taunting us too much to make a stand.   (source)
    taunting = mocking or insulting
  • Bullies, drawn by his oddity and hoping to goad him into uttering Italian curses, pelted him with rocks, taunted him, punched him, and kicked him.   (source)
    taunted = intentionally angered, challenged, or upset
  • He was taunting the animals now, snarling back, and it drove them wild.   (source)
    taunting = teasing
  • Rosaleen practicing writing her name, the three men taunting her, how she poured snuff juice on their shoes.   (source)
    taunting = mocking or insulting
  • ...and they taunted me with, "Do you really kiss trees? Didn't you know you're supposed to kiss boys?"   (source)
    taunted = teased (in an upsetting way)
  • A pair of foolish boys stood off to one side of the platform, laughing and taunting the dog, and before I knew what I was doing, I had run over to them and chased them away in a fury—hardly the behavior of a diplomat.   (source)
    taunting = teasing
  • I was in third grade, had just lost a race, and felt there was only one way to adequately deal with the taunting victor.   (source)
    taunting = mocking or insulting
  • They went over to Isaiah and taunted him.   (source)
    taunted = mocked or insulted to intentionally challenge or upset
  • "What's the matter," she taunted, "can't keep up?"   (source)
    taunted = mocked or teased
  • The intense rage of the arresting officers and the racist taunts and threats from uniformed police officers who did not know him were shocking.   (source)
    taunts = insults
  • They moved swiftly, ignoring the taunts and vicious words the men called after them.   (source)
    taunts = insults intended to anger, challenge, or upset someone
  • Silvia went on and on in her elegant tone, taunting my stomach.   (source)
    taunting = mocking or teasing
  • "Go ahead, hit me!" he taunted.   (source)
    taunted = intentionally challenging and angering someone
  • Troy taunts him. He sticks out his head and offers him a target.   (source)
    taunts = angers or challenges
  • Sure enough, there was Janina in the middle of the street, squatting on her haunches, hurling her voice, thumbing her nose at Buffo, taunting him in perfect imitation of me.   (source)
    taunting = intentionally angering, challenging, or upsetting
  • The taunting breaks out into a wild, savage dance, with epithets hurled at Anita,   (source)
    taunting = intentionally angering, challenging, or upsetting someone
  • Josie Pye, whom he had driven over, sat beside him, and her face certainly was both triumphant and taunting.   (source)
    taunting = mocking or causing upset
  • Is he addressing the audience or is he so drunk he might actually be taunting the Capitol?†   (source)
  • He didn't mention that the remainder of the shirt had been tied, tauntingly, to the antenna of his squad car.†   (source)
  • If Peter tries to taunt me, she will defend me.†   (source)
  • Contain your aggression to staring into its eyes and hurling toots and taunts.†   (source)
  • The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.†   (source)
  • As if the taunting gave Thomas a sudden burst of courage, he walked over to the lit door, ignoring the creaking floorboards and laughter downstairs—ignoring the onslaught of words he didn't understand, suppressing the dreadful feelings they induced.†   (source)
  • All he heard were the taunting gibes of the prison guards.†   (source)
  • "I'm not scared of you," he taunted, and took a big bite.†   (source)
  • I'd meant this simply to be a statement of fact, but it sounded sort of taunting and doesn't seem to have made her any happier.†   (source)
  • Luther spoke in a taunting way, like a boy with an extra-powerful slingshot.†   (source)
  • They taunted me as I walked into the locker room.†   (source)
  • They are fond of dramatic gestures, and invariably leave behind some taunting memento.†   (source)
  • When he got far enough away from them, he turned to face their taunting, picked up a sizable rock, and beaned the ringleader right on the forehead, knocking him unconscious.†   (source)
  • Taunted and bullied, ridiculed and abused by other children.†   (source)
  • One meet Annie would be deep in it, taunting the opponents, insulting their uniforms or SATs, and the next she'd be wholly uninterested in the outcome but happy to be along for the ride.†   (source)
  • She had flirted with him, she had taunted him, she had humiliated him—or she had tried to.†   (source)
  • I didn't hear the rest of the taunt.†   (source)
  • But here, it was hard to focus when Cain was nearby, taunting and sneering, waiting for her to make one mistake.†   (source)
  • "You can hit harder than that," Thorne taunted.†   (source)
  • She expected the teacher to talk about a time-out chair, or some retributive punishment that would be handed out if Peter was again taunted by the in crowd.†   (source)
  • I try to hold in a gasp, but it echoes anyway, taunting us.†   (source)
  • Irritated at being pushed aside, the Tommies swore, and taunted their allies with shouts of "Maginot!"†   (source)
  • Now they no longer have to swallow their own tears or suffer the taunts of magpies.†   (source)
  • It's obvious from his taunting remarks that he knows exactly what he was insinuating with the window comment.†   (source)
  • At night the messengers came in to taunt them and to knock their shaven heads together.†   (source)
  • They totally overheard and told me that I had to go home while they analyzed Lilly about her need to taunt her sex-crazed stalker.†   (source)
  • Goliath taunted the Jews, daring them to send their toughest soldiers to fight him.†   (source)
  • When someone taunted Clive Saunders for walking like a girl, I would deliver swift vengeance with my foot to the taunter's less-protected parts.†   (source)
  • Some other android shell, perhaps—maybe even an escort with their tauntingly ideal feminine shapes.†   (source)
  • I tell myself he must come—he has to—but the clock creeps forward, taunting me, and outside the streets are silent except for the occasional barking of a dog.†   (source)
  • Astonished, he heard his voice come out, cool and casual, so that the bitterness of Jack's taunt fell powerless.†   (source)
  • In front of us, these thugs, who could not have been more than eighteen years old, taunted my father, shouting at him to tell them where he had hid the key.†   (source)
  • ABIGAIL, tauntingly: You come five mile to see a silly girl fly?†   (source)
  • Nat's eyes deliberately taunted her.†   (source)
  • I remembered Du Hai's taunt.†   (source)
  • "You scared to go over to the cemetery, man?" a boy named Crusher taunted Sampson.†   (source)
  • It must have been just before my talk with him by the pond; a time, I suppose, when Tommy was still coming out of that phase of being teased and taunted.†   (source)
  • The taunting edge in his voice annoyed me.†   (source)
  • "Sorry, Peter," Valentine taunted.†   (source)
  • They are cursed, taunted.†   (source)
  • She saw it as God's Way of punishing Ammu for her sins and simultaneously avenging her (Baby Kochamma's) humiliation at the hands of Velutha and the men in the march—the Modalali Mariakutty taunts, the forced flagwaving.†   (source)
  • The Jamaican children would taunt the Chinese children.†   (source)
  • It was as if she were taunting some wild creature out in the bush, or in her head, inviting it to show itself, a curious game of hide-and-go-seek that was played out in the dense terrain of a nightmare.†   (source)
  • I knew all along that they were taunting me, but I went along with the gags anyway.†   (source)
  • "It was nice to see you again," Jacob said, and I could tell he was taunting Mike just a bit.†   (source)
  • It seemed vaguely to Danny that the story had bad a happy ending, but that had paled to insignificance beside the two dominant images: the taunting, maddening locked door with some great secret behind it, and the grisly secret itself, repeated more than half a dozen times.†   (source)
  • Dustfinger likes taunting him about it.†   (source)
  • Our eyes stay locked, and the class emits a taunting groan.†   (source)
  • "You stay in one place long enough, you see a lot of things," he says, his tone taunting now, as if he wants to play a game.†   (source)
  • She was begging a sailor for a sweet, which he held tauntingly out of reach.†   (source)
  • During the school year, after taking care of the garden and livestock each morning, she'd walk two miles—past the white school where children threw rocks and taunted her—to the colored school, a three-room wooden farmhouse hidden under tall shade trees, with a yard out front where Mrs. Coleman made the boys and girls play on separate sides.†   (source)
  • The children hide in bushes or behind fences and taunt her as she lumbers outside to put out trash or water her grassless yard.†   (source)
  • A dark thought even crossed his mind that the killer could be taunting him, or luring him away to leave the rest of his family unprotected.†   (source)
  • He swerved back, nearly colliding with me, taunting me to chase him.†   (source)
  • But he didn't understand me, he thought I was taunting him.†   (source)
  • The boy continued his taunting throughout the period.†   (source)
  • Everyone thought she had made it up, and she had tolerated more taunting and teasing from other children, more lectures and punishments from grown-ups, than any eleven-year-old should have to bear.†   (source)
  • They lined up, laughing, taunting Padre Gabriel by opening their mouths for the Sacred Host and making lewd gestures with their tongues.†   (source)
  • He ran a squad of obstreperous newsboys, whom he loathed, and who loathed him in return, as was clear by their taunts and practical jokes.†   (source)
  • It's a cruel schoolyard taunt, but Nathaniel is up to the challenge.†   (source)
  • He resented the taunts of his boyhood peers, but he never once complained to his father, knowing that this would be an evil thing to do.†   (source)
  • 'Louis, Louis,' he taunted me, and pointed a long, bone-thin finger at me, as if to say he'd caught me in the act.†   (source)
  • Years had passed, but I could still hear the taunting voices in my head.†   (source)
  • Though few of us would dare taunt him alone, there was safety in numbers and he'd already heard his name far more times than he would have expected.†   (source)
  • From that moment on, to his dismay, he was nicknamed Kalle Blomkvist by his peers—an epithet employed with taunting provocation, not unfriendly but not really friendly either.†   (source)
  • Only this time, he wagged his fingers in my direction, taunting.†   (source)
  • From its frame on the wall, the photo of the struggling patient seemed to be taunting him.†   (source)
  • He couldn't concentrate at work, he said, and he had received taunts and insults from strangers.†   (source)
  • He realized she had done this to taunt him subtly, a reproof against his recent pose of coldness.†   (source)
  • "What?" taunted Albriech.†   (source)
  • When they weren't taunting him and reminding him of how much he "messed up," they were asking him about how he was going to support us and whether or not I'd applied for WIC (Women, Infants, and Children), a federally funded program that provides a monthly stipend for nutritious food to pregnant women and women with young kids who meet income guidelines.†   (source)
  • The wind seemed to taunt me with the name.†   (source)
  • First he would do his exercises and run around the house, oblivious to the taunts of the hardy peasants looking on.†   (source)
  • "The six-fingered man taunts you," Yeste called.†   (source)
  • I ignored his taunts.†   (source)
  • Tao said it wasn't bad but the father was very sensitive about anyone taunting his oldest son, which explained the mask.†   (source)
  • The other Emigres appeared to find his challenges and taunts a proper context for their endeavor.†   (source)
  • "Down there in the jungle?" he taunted.†   (source)
  • She had been here for over an hour, posing and re-posing, the word repose like a taunt, for it was what she longed to do and could not.†   (source)
  • It was all for show, because there was a taunting spark at the center of his black eyes.†   (source)
  • The word was taunting me, even in my own home.†   (source)
  • Tefu had become a kind of goad to Sobukwe, teasing, taunting, and challenging him.†   (source)
  • "I thought that you could steal anything," he taunted.†   (source)
  • "Just say no?" he taunted.†   (source)
  • In fact, he had the Sword with him when he came down to the cells and taunted me through the bars.†   (source)
  • They were both tempted to rebuke her, to taunt her stupidity, but nothing was said during a long, heavy pause.†   (source)
  • Whenever he would close his eyes to sleep, the huge white flowers would appear in his mind to taunt him.†   (source)
  • I look over at Paco, knowing it's just like him to taunt a Satin Hood by stealing something so stupid.†   (source)
  • It rushes unbidden from the mouths of strangers and in the taunts of children.†   (source)
  • He was eight and very big for his age, the target of school-yard taunts and cruel insults since he was six.†   (source)
  • Seany is still taunting me.†   (source)
  • But that spurs the group on, and they begin taunting him for being chicken.†   (source)
  • But she had chosen this man's side against him, and in his fury, he tried to stamp out what had hurt him the most and was now brazenly taunting him—her disobedience.†   (source)
  • Felicity stops, turns to me, that pale face taunting.†   (source)
  • Bigwig's taunt had been deliberate.†   (source)
  • Phillip and any number of kids who taunted him through Ballou's hallways left their scars.†   (source)
  • His buddies taunted him, "Dude, Adam, your mom's not here!"†   (source)
  • Buckheath asked, turning to her with a half-taunting, half-relenting smile on his face.†   (source)
  • His voice was more taunting but less certain.†   (source)
  • I covered my ears, but her words still taunted me.†   (source)
  • 'Subito, subito,' he taunted her tenderly.†   (source)
  • With a jolt that jarred his stomach, he confronted photos of helpless blindfolded Americans at the mercy of fanatical, taunting crowds.†   (source)
  • Kids felt bolder on the bus because the bus driver was driving and couldn't do anything to stop the taunting.†   (source)
  • Throughout his introduction, Hannah's taunts and obscenities could be heard during his pauses.†   (source)
  • Beth smiled and tauntingly waved at Echo's table of gal pals.†   (source)
  • During the day it was never far from her immediate consciousness, intermittently returning at unsuspected moments, whispering and taunting her.†   (source)
  • A flock of Shataiki had now gathered in the sky and circled above them, taunting.†   (source)
  • At every turn, Eddie seemed to delight in taunting Vlad, as if waiting for the day he would snap and reveal his darkest secrets.†   (source)
  • On the icy, cobbled square where the Province House stood, a lone British sentry, posted in front of the nearby Custom House, was being taunted by a small band of men and boys.†   (source)
  • Plum Blossom taunted.†   (source)
  • The lightning is flashing incessantly outside the window, taunting me every time it lights up the sky.†   (source)
  • I liked this new version of an Angel who would go out looking for shooting stars, but hated what I saw of him the next morning, taunting Lou Ann about something that had probably never even happened.†   (source)
  • When I'd reached a safe distance, I held up the guard to taunt them, then held him still higher and leered into his face.†   (source)
  • Later, when several of the other village children taunted me about it, I learned that my father had actually been crowing about me at the Miner's Tavern that day, saying that lie wished he had the means to have me schooled.†   (source)
  • It was almost a taunt.†   (source)
  • Even the gulls outside were mercifully quiet; it was Ile de Port Noir's holy day, no boats coming in to taunt the birds with their catches.†   (source)
  • Beliel circles Raffe like a shark as he taunts him.†   (source)
  • I was my experiences and my experiences were me, and no blind men, no matter how powerful they became, even if they conquered the world, could take that, or change one single itch, taunt, laugh, cry, scar, ache, rage or pain of it.†   (source)
  • ELESIN executes a brief, half-taunting dance.†   (source)
  • She could hear the breeze; it tickled through the grass beside her ear and taunted her.†   (source)
  • Not to say I won't taunt fate just a little.†   (source)
  • How she taunted me, singsonging, "Crybaby, come let your Aint Loma hold you."†   (source)
  • Which was Puller's purpose behind the taunts.†   (source)
  • He felt like the captain of an ocean liner in distress, who preferred to go down with his ship rather than be saved by the canoe of savages taunting him with the superiority of their craft.†   (source)
  • Sharon laughed at the camera, taunted it, touching herself, shifting.†   (source)
  • Have we no more gravity among us than to be so chafed by the taunt of a pajock?†   (source)
  • This, of course, was the signal for our crew to taunt and ridicule Edrick's crew.†   (source)
  • Mitchell taunted.†   (source)
  • Mario saw this and felt bad for Jake, even though he had taunted him before the game.†   (source)
  • "We didn't run off," Iris taunts.†   (source)
  • Never again would he be taunted by the other apprentices, boys much younger than he who climbed through the ranks in the guild step by tedious step.†   (source)
  • He's only toying with her, using just one hand and a dug-in foot, almost taunting her with his strength, and Sherrie's starting to cry and get angry.†   (source)
  • When he entered his parents' room he felt as if he were a child again, driven there by a thunderstorm or the sound of a squirrel scampering across the roof, and he remembered when he lay between his father and mother, taunting ghosts and lightning.†   (source)
  • Like a mischievous childhood playmate, memory taunted him from hiding place after hiding place in a deep garden of the past dappled by light and shadow.†   (source)
  • Sometimes she slept on the floor; sometimes we slept sardinelike, my feet at her head, until she complained that my feet were "taunting" her.†   (source)
  • They could taunt Donny Kellen about his hero, McCarthy, except they'd heard Donny had been shipped off to military school.†   (source)
  • "So the woman of the house is a fighter?" the tall soldier taunted.†   (source)
  • I imagined what it would be like to be caged most of the day and herded like sheep the rest of the time, to be taunted and bullied by guards and inmates, to be subjected to all kinds of physical indignities, to have absolutely no privacy.†   (source)
  • Surely she would rather be taunted than subject herself to the smells of this place — smoke, she made out, and other odors.†   (source)
  • It was such a shock that he had a moment when he wondered if he was hallucinating, experiencing some taunting flash of vision from his youth.†   (source)
  • They ran and taunted and hustled us through the second day.†   (source)
  • But the idea that something bad might happen taunted me.†   (source)
  • And then I saw it, flashing there, taunting me with its accompanying music.†   (source)
  • Both had suffered taunts at school because of their heritage and faith, both had unhappy early sexual experiences with French boys, and both had taken up the study of medicine in the autumn of 2003, Natalie at the Universite de Montpellier, one of the oldest medical schools in the world, and Leila at Universite Paris-Sud.†   (source)
  • She wondered if they hovered over the coffle of slaves being driven down one of the old overland routes to Natchez or New Orleans, whispering taunts, crying revenge, bloody revenge, revolt, bloody revolt.†   (source)
  • The boys who had taunted him now left him alone.†   (source)
  • Each one has an error like this, laboriously worked into the design, like a taunt.†   (source)
  • They taunted each other, fingers to noses, and this time the audience shrieked with laughter, taunting each in turn, and applauding the favourite.†   (source)
  • I visited the sociology class of Spelman College where Dr. Moreland (Mrs. Charles Moreland) bullied and taunted and challenged her class to think and talk.†   (source)
  • Then how could he have been so cruel to you, taunting you like that, asking you how you lived through it all while so many of the others were"—the word nearly choked me, a clot in my throat, but I managed to get it out—"were gassed.†   (source)
  • There were some boys who made a point of taunting us.†   (source)
  • Then one day, sprung from who knows what taunts flung at him, his questionings, first of many, began.†   (source)
  • MARY Turns on him —with a strangely triumphant, taunting smile.†   (source)
  • He turned to look at me, his eyes faintly taunting.†   (source)
  • One red-haired man in a burst of wildness even tried to give away his truckload of shrimp to a man on the other side of the boat-nearly all the trucks were full of shrimp-causing taunts and then protests of "They good!†   (source)
  • Pouring out his taunting sarcasm in short, bombastic thunderbolts of gigantic rage, hate and ridicule, day after day, in town after town, he assailed his opponents and their policies with bitter invective.†   (source)
  • LARRY--(stung--furiously) Look out how you try to taunt me back into life, I warn you!   (source)
    taunt = anger
  • But suddenly, as her dilated, frightened eyes gazed out over the audience, she saw Gilbert Blythe away at the back of the room, bending forward with a smile on his face—a smile which seemed to Anne at once triumphant and taunting.   (source)
    taunting = mocking or causing upset
  • "Come on, then, warriors of Odin," Loki taunted.†   (source)
  • If I hear rumors of taunting, I will find you and I will make you sorry.†   (source)
  • "Ever wondered how Cyclops lost his eye?" he taunted, lunging at Marcus.†   (source)
  • "Little b000000y," the man said, a taunting and creepy call.†   (source)
  • The pyramid stared back at him tauntingly.†   (source)
  • Harry was even glad to see him, because he was company, albeit of a snide and taunting kind.†   (source)
  • He grinned, his expression suddenly taunting, and broke into a run.†   (source)
  • You'll never find her, the spirit taunted.†   (source)
  • I'd heard it taunting me many times before in my dreams.†   (source)
  • It was God's fault, for taunting her as He had.†   (source)
  • So come on, little man, what were you?" the toothless man taunted, stepping closer.†   (source)
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