teaser
Americannoun
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a person or thing that teases.
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an advertisement that lures customers or clients by offering a bonus, gift, or the like.
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Also called tease,. Also called teaser ad. Television. a short, impressionistic image, promotional video, or audio spot that reveals very little about the product or company being advertised and is presented to generate interest in advance of the primary advertising campaign.
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Also called teaser trailer,. Also called trailer tease. Movies. a short, edited promotional video to generate interest in an upcoming film and announce its release date: a teaser is a forerunner to full-length trailers for the film that feature highlights and are shown closer to the film’s distribution date.
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Also called bumper tease. Television. bumper.
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Informal. tease.
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Theater. a drapery or flat piece across the top of the proscenium arch that masks the flies and that, together with the tormentors, forms a frame for the stage opening.
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Printing, Journalism. kicker.
noun
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a person who teases
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a preliminary advertisement in a campaign that attracts attention by making people curious to know what product is being advertised
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a difficult question
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vet science a vasectomized male animal, such as an ox, used to detect oestrus in females
Etymology
Origin of teaser
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English teser “machine for teasing wool”; see tease, -er 1
Explanation
The nearly impossible puzzle your math teacher gives for extra credit can be called a teaser — a tricky problem to solve. A mystifying problem is one kind of teaser — another is a person who loves to tease. Your nose-grabbing, practical joking uncle is a teaser, especially if he enjoys gently mocking or making fun of you. Yet another teaser is the kind that opens a TV show — sort of a sneak preview of the story to come. This is closest to the original meaning of teaser, from 1934, "an introductory advertisement or sample."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The first promotional teaser didn’t show Ejiofor or Reinsve, only a descending series of increasingly wrong-looking rooms.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 31, 2026
Ironic, considering the first film’s teaser trailer was simply a sequence from the movie, condensed and re-edited, but told prospective viewers infinitely more about the film without having to say anything narrative-specific.
From Salon • Apr. 20, 2026
The singer announced the record, a sequel to 2005’s “Confessions On A Dancefloor,” on April 15, alongside a 60-second teaser video for “I Feel Free.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 18, 2026
She will have a love story with Lord Kilmartin's cousin Michaela, played by Masali Baduza, and a teaser trailer released on Tuesday showed the pair touching hands.
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026
The trick was finding them before others did—finding, for example, that both Moody’s and S&P favored floating-rate mortgages with low teaser rates over fixed-rate ones.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
