Definitions for: Provoke


[v] provide the needed stimulus for
[v] call forth; of emotions, feelings, and responses; "arouse pity"; "raise a smile"; "evoke sympathy"
[v] call forth; "Her behavior provoked a quarrel between the couple"
[v] annoy continually or chronically; "He is known to harry his staff when he is overworked"



Webster (1913) Definition: Pro*voke", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Provoked; p. pr. &
vb. n. Provoking.] [F. provoquer, L. provocare to call
forth; pro forth + vocare to call, fr. vox, vocis, voice,
cry, call. See Voice.]
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.

Obey his voice, provoke him not. --Ex. xxiii.
21.

Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. --Eph.
vi. 4.

Such acts Of contumacy will provoke the Highest To make
death in us live. --Milton.

Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust? --Gray.

To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it,
what it provokes in his own soul. -- J.
Burroughs.

Syn: To irritate; arouse; stir up; awake; excite; incite;
anger. See Irritate.


Pro*voke", v. i.
1. To cause provocation or anger.

2. To appeal.

Note: [A Latinism] [Obs.] --Dryden.

Synonyms: arouse, beset, call forth, chevvy, chevy, chivvy, chivy, elicit, enkindle, evoke, evoke, fire, harass, harry, hassle, kick up, kindle, molest, plague, raise, stimulate

See Also: agitate, anger, annoy, ask for, bedevil, bother, bruise, cause, chafe, challenge, create, crucify, devil, discomfit, discompose, disconcert, do, draw, dun, entice, excite, fire up, foment, frustrate, get at, get to, goad, gravel, heat, hurt, ignite, incite, infatuate, inflame, injure, instigate, interest, invite, irritate, jog, lure, make, make, nark, needle, nettle, offend, overcome, overpower, overtake, overwhelm, pick, prick, rag, rejuvenate, rekindle, rile, set off, shake, shake up, shame, spite, stimulate, stir, stir up, stir up, sweep over, tempt, torment, untune, upset, vex, wake, whelm, wound

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