We also use tease in the sense of exploring or unravel as in to tease out a subject/issue and I think this actually comes from the image of a cat playing with a ball of string and teasing out the string. So yes in this context it means to both play and loosen

Hi , we normally tease a person or animal not a thing . Teasing is to provoke or make fun of in a playful way. Eg the children were teasing the dog. Hope this helps 😁