/tɛmpt/, /tɛmt/
OriginFrom Middle English tempten, from Old French tempter (French: tenter), from Latin temptare, from tentare (“to handle, touch, try, test, tempt”), frequentative of tendere (“to stretch”). Displaced native English costning (“temptation”).
- transitiveTo provoke someone to do wrong, especially by promising a reward; to entice.
“She tempted me to eat the apple.”
“By Heav’ns, ſuch Virtues, join’d with ſuch Succeſs,
Diſtract my very Soul: Our Father’s Fortune
Wou’d almoſt tempt us to renounce his Precepts.”
“Eveline Hill, the protagonist of the Dubliners story "Eveline," for example, successfully extricates herself from the confines of her "Eve" name since, like her nameling in the Garden of Eden who was ”
- transitiveTo attract; to allure.
“Its glossy skin tempted me.”
“The next time you are trout fishing and none of your lures tempts the fish, smoke a spoon hook and cast it.”
- transitiveTo provoke something; to court.
“It would be tempting fate.”
Formstempts(present, singular, third-person) · tempting(participle, present) · tempted(participle, past) · tempted(past)