Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Taunt

Taunt (tänt), 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 (tänt; 277), 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, n. Upbraiding language; bitter or sarcastic reproach; insulting invective.

With scoffs, and scorns, and contemelious taunts. Shak.

With sacrilegious taunt and impious jest. Prior.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.