All 4 Uses

taunt
in
The Nickel Boys
(Auto-generated)

A group of whites jeered and taunted behind the policemen, and more white men trotted down the street to join them.†
p. 35.3 *

taunted = intentionally angered, challenged, or upset
He knew he couldn't let the boys see him weep, so he turned over in the bunk and put his pillow over his head and listened to the voices: the jokes and taunts, the stories of home and distant cronies, the juvenile conjectures about how the world worked and their naive plans to outwit it.†
p. 54.5

taunts = (verb) intentionally angers, challenges, or upsets someone OR (noun) insults or other actions intended to anger, challenge, or upset someone
Elwood said, like one of the boys from his street, how buddies taunted each other back home.†
p. 78.5

taunted = intentionally angered, challenged, or upset
End of the night, I'd been taunting this fucking peckerwood the whole game.†
p. 95.6

taunting = intentionally angering, challenging, or upsetting

Definitions:

(1) (taunt)
to intentionally anger, challenge, or upset someone -- especially by mocking them or hurling insults

or (as a noun): an insult or other action intended to anger, challenge, or upset someone
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
More rarely, taunt can be used as a noun to refer to something said or done to mock, criticize, and/or tease.