Other forms: tempted, tempting, tempts
To tempt somebody is to make them want something they should not have. The cake on the counter, the shortcut that is against the rules.
It takes into or an infinitive: tempted into buying it, tempted to say something. The word carries a moral edge from its religious history, and temptation is one of the oldest ideas in English writing. Everyday use is lighter, so being tempted by a dessert is a joke about willpower. Tempting fate means doing or saying something that seems to invite bad luck.
1verbtemptTo make someone want to do something they should not.
“The warm weather tempted them into the garden.”
To tempt is to keep testing. Latin tentō meant to handle, to try or to test, a repeated form of tendō, to stretch, so a temptation is something being tried out on you.
Latin
tempto
Old French
tempter
Middle English
tempten
English, today
tempt
Built from
From Middle English tempten, from Old French tempter (French: tenter), from Latin tempto, from tento (“to handle, touch, try, test, tempt”), frequentative of tendo (“to stretch”). Displaced native English costning (“temptation”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA