1690s, "act of teasing," from tease (v.). Meaning "one who teases" is from 1852. Specifically as short for cock-teaser, by 1976.
also teazel, teazle, type of plant, Old English tæsel "large thistle used in teasing cloth," from Proto-Germanic *taisilo (source also of Old High German zeisala), which is related to the source of tease (v.), which is from Old English tæsan "to pluck."
c. 1300, "an act of riding on horseback," especially in a festival procession, verbal noun from ride (v.). Meaning "teasing, annoying" is from 1927. As an adjective, "suitable for or associated with riding," Old English ridende. Riding-hood, originally a large hood worn by women when riding or exposed to weather, is from mid-15c., later a fashionable article of outdoor wear (18c.). Riding-boots, kind of high boots worn in riding, is from 1630s.
formerly also teaze, Old English tæsan "pluck, pull, tear; pull apart, comb" (fibers of wool, flax, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *taisijan (source also of Danish tæse, Middle Dutch tesen, Dutch tezen "to draw, pull, scratch," Old High German zeisan "to tease, pick wool").
The original sense is of running thorns through wool or flax to separate, shred, or card the fibers. The figurative sense of "vex, worry, annoy" (sometimes done in good humor) emerged 1610s. For similar sense development, compare heckle. Hairdressing sense is recorded from 1957. Related: Teased; teasing; teasingly.
"a spoof; action of mocking or teasing," by 1958, slang, from the verbal phrase send up "to mock, make fun of" (1931); see send (v.) + up (adv.). This is perhaps a transferred use of the public school colloquial phrase for "to send a boy to the headmaster" (usually for punishment), which is attested from 1821. In U.S. slang, send up could mean "convict of crime and imprison" (1852), and in 19c. nautical language it meant "hoist (a mast or yard) into its place aloft."
To send down (v.) also was a British university punishment: "compel a student to leave the college for a time" (1853), and in U.S. slang this also meant "put in prison" (1840).
"to remove the shucks from," 1819, from or related to shuck (n.). Related: Shucked; shucker; shucking.
Many extended U.S. slang senses are from the notion of "stripping" an ear of corn, or from the capers associated with husking frolics; such as "to strip (off) one's clothes" (1848) and "to deceive, swindle, cheat, fool" (1959). The phrase shucking and jiving "fooling, deceiving" is suggested from 1966, in African-American vernacular, but compare shuck (v.) a slang term among "cool musicians" for "to improvise chords, especially to a piece of music one does not know" (1957), and shuck (n.) "a theft or fraud," in use by 1950s in African-American vernacular.
[B]lack senses probably fr[om] the fact that black slaves sang and shouted gleefully during corn-shucking season, and this behavior, along with lying and teasing, became a part of the protective and evasive behavior normally adopted towards white people in "traditional" race relations; the sense of "swindle" is perhaps related to the mid-1800s term to be shucked out, "be defeated, be denied victory," which suggests that the notion of stripping someone as an ear of corn is stripped may be basic in the semantics. ["Dictionary of American Slang"]
