tease [OE] When you tease someone you may ‘rub them up the wrong way’. This looks back to the original meaning of the word, since in Old English tease meant ‘to comb wool in preparation for spinning’. We still use the same idea when we talk of teasing out tangles in hair. The process of teasing wool was sometimes carried out using a dried, prickly flower head, which is where the plant the teasel [OE] gets its name.