Taunt \Taunt\, a. [Cf. OF. tant so great, F. tant so much, L. tantus of such size, so great, so much.] (Naut.) Very high or tall; as, a ship with taunt masts. --Totten.
Taunt \Taunt\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Taunted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Taunting}.] [Earlier, to tease; probably fr. OF. tanter to tempt, to try, for tenter. See {Tempt}.] To reproach with severe or insulting words; to revile; to upbraid; to jeer at; to flout.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her. --Shak.
Syn: To deride; ridicule; mock; jeer; flout; revile. See {Deride}.
Taunt \Taunt\, n. Upbraiding language; bitter or sarcastic reproach; insulting invective.
With scoffs, and scorns, and contemelious taunts. --Shak.
With sacrilegious taunt and impious jest. --Prior.
The taunt caused his critics to back down. Mr Ter-Petrosian is trying to give the appearance of marching gamely ahead. He doesn't mind too much having traded his former career at Yerevan University for his current job.
It would be an appropriate rejoinder to Teddy Kennedy's taunt, "Where was George?"
Bush backers taunt Dukakis by citing the dumping of raw sewage into Boston Harbor.
Here, the wimp, played by Matthew Broderick, spends an evening with the eponymous widder-lady while her insufferable children taunt him, while his friends play cards and a drunken rival interlopes.
Bush said the Dukakis who now calls himself a liberal could debate the earlier one who shunned the "L word," which Bush and President Reagan have used repeatedly to taunt the Massachusetts governor.
Loud placards alternately taunt him ("War Wimp"), and urge him on ("We Trust You Dan").
When Quayle walked to his car for the next appearance, a voice from the crowd loudly shouted "Chicken Hawk!" Quayle, apparently not hearing the taunt correctly, smiled and gave a thumbs-up signal.
Then in May, with best wishes from New Zealand's 3.3 million citizens and 65 million sheep, the boat will arrive off Southern California to taunt the current holder of the America's Cup: the San Diego Yacht Club.
Rival fans taunt San Jacinto as "Failure U." and make a special chant of team members' performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test: "S-A-T, S-A-T, You can't pass it, You can't pass it."
Violence from opponents of expanded fishing rights for Indians will not be allowed, an official warned Sunday, following seven arrests as crowds gathered to throw rocks and taunt spearfishers.
The word means more than just outsider _ it means "not Japanese," a taunt Japanese schoolchildren can throw at anyone who does not belong.