tempting

tempt (one) into (something or some place)

1. To entice or allure one to enter some place or thing. The beautiful woman kept giving the married man flirty looks to try to tempt him into the hot tub with her. There's no way you could tempt me into some underwater cage surrounded by sharks!

2. To entice or allure one to do something. A: "Could I tempt you into joining our company?" B: "No thanks, I'm very happy in my current job." The promise of adventure and a guaranteed job placement is tempting me into moving to Japan to teach English.

tempt (one) to (do something)

To entice or allure one to do something. A: "Could I tempt you to join our company?" B: "No thanks, I'm very happy in my current job." The promise of adventure and a guaranteed job placement is tempting me to move to Japan to teach English.

tempt (someone or an animal) with (something)

To entice, attract, or allure someone or an animal with something. I really don't want to relocate to Alaska, but the company is tempting me with a huge bonus. We tried tempting the lion with a slab of meat, but it refused to leave its cage.

tempt fate

1. To do something that one knows is dangerous or likely to have a negative outcome. You're really tempting fate by not taking your car in for service when all these dashboard lights are on.

2. To invite bad luck or unpleasant situations by showing one's confidence in something. I'm afraid to tempt fate, but I really think I did well on the exam.

See also: fate, tempt

tempt fate

Also, tempt the fates. Take a severe risk, as in It's tempting fate to start up that mountain so late in the day, or Patrice thought driving that old car was tempting the fates; it was sure to break down . This expression uses tempt in the sense of "test in a way that involves risk or danger." Earlier idioms with a similar meaning were tempt God, dating from the 1300s, and tempt fortune, first recorded in 1603, with fate appearing about 1700.

See also: fate, tempt

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tempt fate

COMMON

1. If someone tempts fate, they take unnecessary risks or do something that may bring them bad luck. They charged the organisers with tempting fate by sending so many ill-prepared crews into such dangerous waters. Note: You can also say that someone tempts providence. I used to take the most appalling risks because it was in my nature to push everything to the extreme. I was tempting providence all the time.

2. If you tempt fate, you talk too confidently about something which may go wrong. While I wouldn't want to tempt fate, almost every time this team has been put under pressure, they've triumphed. Note: You can also say that someone tempts providence. I'm 36 and I'd hate to tempt providence and say I'm going to get pregnant.

See also: fate, tempt

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

tempt fate (or providence)

act rashly. informal

See also: fate, tempt

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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If the synopsis of Tempting God's plot is not confusing enough, the book's strange leaps will keep the reader guessing throughout the story.

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NO As a minister, I admit that the idea of taxpayer-supported aid for my tax-exempt institution is tempting. But to be faithful to the constitutional separation of church and state, we should all be cautious about government subsidies for religiously based programs, however noble their goals.

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Because the book is disappointingly less than the sum of its parts, it is tempting to imagine an improved version.

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It is easy and perhaps too tempting for progressives to proclaim that the sky is falling.

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Not that Pondick doesn't ask for it; any artist who uses beds, baby bottles, and shoes as her signature materials is obviously tempting her viewers to play Freud.

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Kirk (pictured) asked his dad: "Do you want me to get on the floor and you can just kick me while I'm down?" It's tempting, Kirk, very tempting.