verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To stimulate or excite sensually.

   "The dancer titillated her audience with gyrations and suggestive movements."

2. 2
   excite pleasurably or erotically wordnet
3. 3
   touch (a body part) lightly so as to excite the surface nerves and cause uneasiness, laughter, or spasmodic movements wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

tickleaffect the interestamuseappealarouseattract

Example

More examples

"The teasers are designed to titillate viewers."

Etymology

From Latin tītillātus, from tītillāre (“to tickle”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.