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taunt
in a sentence

show 188 more with this conextual meaning
  • Even though they outnumbered us, they were enjoying the game of taunting us too much to make a stand.   (source)
    taunting = mocking or insulting
  • Maybe it's why he stood there and taunted Roland.   (source)
    taunted = mocked or insulted to intentionally challenge or upset
  • 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
  • "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
  • 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
  • Perhaps all this had been his idea, and that was why he had come this morning, to taunt me and gloat.   (source)
    taunt = mock or tease to upset
  • 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
  • They moved swiftly, ignoring the taunts and vicious words the men called after them.   (source)
    taunts = insults intended to anger, challenge, or upset someone
  • "What's the matter," she taunted, "can't keep up?"   (source)
    taunted = mocked or teased
  • Silvia went on and on in her elegant tone, taunting my stomach.   (source)
    taunting = mocking or teasing
  • 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
  • "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
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • Contain your aggression to staring into its eyes and hurling toots and taunts.†   (source)
  • All he heard were the taunting gibes of the prison guards.†   (source)
  • If Peter tries to taunt me, she will defend me.†   (source)
  • "I'm not scared of you," he taunted, and took a big bite.†   (source)
  • Taunted and bullied, ridiculed and abused by other children.†   (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)
  • The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.†   (source)
  • He was taunting the animals now, snarling back, and it drove them wild.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • But here, it was hard to focus when Cain was nearby, taunting and sneering, waiting for her to make one mistake.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • I remembered Du Hai's taunt.†   (source)
  • Irritated at being pushed aside, the Tommies swore, and taunted their allies with shouts of "Maginot!"†   (source)
  • At night the messengers came in to taunt them and to knock their shaven heads together.†   (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)
  • Now they no longer have to swallow their own tears or suffer the taunts of magpies.†   (source)
  • I try to hold in a gasp, but it echoes anyway, taunting us.†   (source)
  • "You scared to go over to the cemetery, man?" a boy named Crusher taunted Sampson.†   (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)
  • They are fond of dramatic gestures, and invariably leave behind some taunting memento.†   (source)
  • Nat's eyes deliberately taunted her.†   (source)
  • Goliath taunted the Jews, daring them to send their toughest soldiers to fight him.†   (source)
  • The Jamaican children would taunt the Chinese children.†   (source)
  • "You can hit harder than that," Thorne taunted.†   (source)
  • Seany is still taunting me.†   (source)
  • Some other android shell, perhaps—maybe even an escort with their tauntingly ideal feminine shapes.†   (source)
  • Astonished, he heard his voice come out, cool and casual, so that the bitterness of Jack's taunt fell powerless.†   (source)
  • ABIGAIL, tauntingly: You come five mile to see a silly girl fly?†   (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)
  • "Sorry, Peter," Valentine taunted.†   (source)
  • It's obvious from his taunting remarks that he knows exactly what he was insinuating with the window comment.†   (source)
  • The taunting edge in his voice annoyed me.†   (source)
  • He couldn't concentrate at work, he said, and he had received taunts and insults from strangers.†   (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)
  • They are cursed, taunted.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • Beth smiled and tauntingly waved at Echo's table of gal pals.†   (source)
  • I knew all along that they were taunting me, but I went along with the gags anyway.†   (source)
  • The boy continued his taunting throughout the period.†   (source)
  • Our eyes stay locked, and the class emits a taunting groan.†   (source)
  • "It was nice to see you again," Jacob said, and I could tell he was taunting Mike just a bit.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • "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)
  • I ignored his taunts.†   (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)
  • The children hide in bushes or behind fences and taunt her as she lumbers outside to put out trash or water her grassless yard. iBruja, Bruja!†   (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)
  • The other Emigres appeared to find his challenges and taunts a proper context for their endeavor.†   (source)
  • Dustfinger likes taunting him about it.†   (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)
  • But he didn't understand me, he thought I was taunting him.†   (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)
  • She was begging a sailor for a sweet, which he held tauntingly out of reach.†   (source)
  • It's a cruel schoolyard taunt, but Nathaniel is up to the challenge.†   (source)
  • In fact, he had the Sword with him when he came down to the cells and taunted me through the bars.†   (source)
  • He realized she had done this to taunt him subtly, a reproof against his recent pose of coldness.†   (source)
  • Years had passed, but I could still hear the taunting voices in my head.†   (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)
  • He swerved back, nearly colliding with me, taunting me to chase him.†   (source)
  • They lined up, laughing, taunting Padre Gabriel by opening their mouths for the Sacred Host and making lewd gestures with their tongues.†   (source)
  • From its frame on the wall, the photo of the struggling patient seemed to be taunting him.†   (source)
  • During the day it was never far from her immediate consciousness, intermittently returning at unsuspected moments, whispering and taunting her.†   (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)
  • "The six-fingered man taunts you," Yeste called.†   (source)
  • It was all for show, because there was a taunting spark at the center of his black eyes.†   (source)
  • How's that for taunting the king?†   (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 look over at Paco, knowing it's just like him to taunt a Satin Hood by stealing something so stupid.†   (source)
  • "Down there in the jungle?" he taunted.†   (source)
  • Tefu had become a kind of goad to Sobukwe, teasing, taunting, and challenging him.†   (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)
  • Bigwig's taunt had been deliberate.†   (source)
  • Tao said it wasn't bad but the father was very sensitive about anyone taunting his oldest son, which explained the mask.†   (source)
  • Only this time, he wagged his fingers in my direction, taunting.†   (source)
  • Buckheath asked, turning to her with a half-taunting, half-relenting smile on his face.†   (source)
  • "Just say no?" he taunted.†   (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)
  • "I thought that you could steal anything," he taunted.†   (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)
  • Felicity stops, turns to me, that pale face taunting.†   (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)
  • Which was Puller's purpose behind the taunts.†   (source)
  • His buddies taunted him, "Dude, Adam, your mom's not here!"†   (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)
  • He was eight and very big for his age, the target of school-yard taunts and cruel insults since he was six.†   (source)
  • I covered my ears, but her words still taunted me.†   (source)
  • Whenever he would close his eyes to sleep, the huge white flowers would appear in his mind to taunt him.†   (source)
  • The lightning is flashing incessantly outside the window, taunting me every time it lights up the sky.†   (source)
  • It rushes unbidden from the mouths of strangers and in the taunts of children.†   (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)
  • First he would do his exercises and run around the house, oblivious to the taunts of the hardy peasants looking on.†   (source)
  • 'Subito, subito,' he taunted her tenderly.†   (source)
  • Plum Blossom taunted.†   (source)
  • Phillip and any number of kids who taunted him through Ballou's hallways left their scars.†   (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)
  • The word was taunting me, even in my own home.†   (source)
  • The wind seemed to taunt me with the name.†   (source)
  • A flock of Shataiki had now gathered in the sky and circled above them, taunting.†   (source)
  • They were both tempted to rebuke her, to taunt her stupidity, but nothing was said during a long, heavy pause.†   (source)
  • Mario saw this and felt bad for Jake, even though he had taunted him before the game.†   (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)
  • Sharon laughed at the camera, taunted it, touching herself, shifting.†   (source)
  • A week rarely went by, often only days, when another hit was made, the same evidence planted, the same taunting of the police.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • His voice was more taunting but less certain.†   (source)
  • "So the woman of the house is a fighter?" the tall soldier taunted.†   (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)
  • It was almost a taunt.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • Throughout his introduction, Hannah's taunts and obscenities could be heard during his pauses.†   (source)
  • But that spurs the group on, and they begin taunting him for being chicken.†   (source)
  • Beliel circles Raffe like a shark as he taunts him.†   (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)
  • "We didn't run off," Iris taunts.†   (source)
  • Have we no more gravity among us than to be so chafed by the taunt of a pajock?†   (source)
  • She could hear the breeze; it tickled through the grass beside her ear and taunted her.†   (source)
  • ELESIN executes a brief, half-taunting dance.†   (source)
  • How she taunted me, singsonging, "Crybaby, come let your Aint Loma hold you."†   (source)
  • They could taunt Donny Kellen about his hero, McCarthy, except they'd heard Donny had been shipped off to military school.†   (source)
  • They ran and taunted and hustled us through the second day.†   (source)
  • Mitchell taunted.†   (source)
  • Not to say I won't taunt fate just a little.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • This, of course, was the signal for our crew to taunt and ridicule Edrick's crew.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • But the idea that something bad might happen taunted me.†   (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)
  • And then I saw it, flashing there, taunting me with its accompanying music.†   (source)
  • Surely she would rather be taunted than subject herself to the smells of this place — smoke, she made out, and other odors.†   (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)
  • Charles Moreland) bullied and taunted and challenged her class to think and talk.†   (source)
  • Each one has an error like this, laboriously worked into the design, like a taunt.†   (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)
  • The boys who had taunted him now left him alone.†   (source)
  • There were some boys who made a point of taunting us.†   (source)
  • He turned to look at me, his eyes faintly taunting.†   (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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • LARRY--(stung--furiously) Look out how you try to taunt me back into life, I warn you!   (source)
    taunt = anger
  • "Little b000000y," the man said, a taunting and creepy call.†   (source)
  • I'd heard it taunting me many times before in my dreams.†   (source)
  • "Ever wondered how Cyclops lost his eye?" he taunted, lunging at Marcus.†   (source)
  • It was God's fault, for taunting her as He had.†   (source)
  • The pyramid stared back at him tauntingly.†   (source)
  • If I hear rumors of taunting, I will find you and I will make you sorry.†   (source)
  • So come on, little man, what were you?" the toothless man taunted, stepping closer.†   (source)
  • Harry was even glad to see him, because he was company, albeit of a snide and taunting kind.†   (source)
  • This girl either actually believes all that made-up crap or she's taunting me.†   (source)
  • The anger in Pearl's eyes grew intense, overtaking the childish taunts.†   (source)
  • So he kills me and gives it a twist …. how can he taunt me so?†   (source)
  • You can't make me," his brother taunted back.†   (source)
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