Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To incite to anger or resentment.
- transitive verb To stir to action or feeling.
- transitive verb To give rise to; bring about.
- transitive verb To bring about deliberately; induce.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To call forth or out; challenge; summon.
- To stimulate to action; move; excite; arouse.
- To call forth; cause; occasion; instigate.
- To excite to anger or passion; exasperate; irritate; enrage.
- Synonyms and To stir up, rouse, awake, induce, incite, impel, kindle.
- Irritate, Incense, etc. (see
exasperate ), offend, anger, chafe, nettle, gall. - To appeal.
- To produce anger or irritation. Compare
provoking .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To cause provocation or anger.
- intransitive verb obsolete To appeal. [A Latinism]
- transitive verb To call forth; to call into being or action; esp., to incense to action, a faculty or passion, as love, hate, or ambition; hence, commonly, to incite, as a person, to action by a challenge, by taunts, or by defiance; to exasperate; to irritate; to offend intolerably; to cause to retaliate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive to cause someone to become annoyed or angry.
- verb transitive to
bring about a reaction. - verb obsolete To
appeal .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb annoy continually or chronically
- verb call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)
- verb provide the needed stimulus for
- verb evoke or provoke to appear or occur
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Let them, as far as I am concerned, but it may short term provoke more counterreaction.
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Today, another American legend, Mark Twain, celebrated for the power of his language and his ability to delight and provoke, is also under attack.
Life Upon the Wicked StageFreedom of Artistic Expression 1994
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A very large part of our knowledge about immunity against bacteria and the diseases they provoke is therefore due to the action of haemolytic sera on red corpuscles, and it was only later that attempts were made to find out if, and in what measure, the detected properties apply equally to bacteria and the bacteriolytic sera.
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God they provoke is just, and holy, and terrible, and not such a one as themselves.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721
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No, the federal response the state of Arizona is trying to provoke is to police the damn border already.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Is the Arizona Immigration Law Preempted? 2010
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No, the federal response the state of Arizona is trying to provoke is to police the damn border already.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Is the Arizona Immigration Law Preempted? 2010
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Its not just the number of responses, I think is important, but the kind of responses your posts provoke, that is the essense of what makes your blog so different.
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And I'm very surprised that bin Laden, that al Qaeda would pull something on this scale knowing what the response was going to be unless that's what they intended to provoke, which is another theory.
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They provoke, that is, a strong reaction, which it was also intended to use for therapeutic purposes.
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Irish bailout terms provoke risk of revolt over next week's budget
The Guardian World News Henry McDonald 2011
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