PROVOKE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Provoke

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/prəvˈoʊk/ Listen

verb

Provoke v. t. (past & past part. provoked; pres. part. provoking) 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." "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath." "Such acts Of contumacy will provoke the Highest To make death in us live." "Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust?" "To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it, what it provokes in his own soul."

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

Provoke v. i.

To cause provocation or anger.

To appeal. Note: (A Latinism) (Obs.)

See images of 'Provoke'

Etymology of 'Provoke'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Provoke" Quotes from Famous Books

... on Frank's making some peculiarly insulting remark in a low tone, his pent-up ire boiled forth, and, in the madness of his fury, he seized on his cousin with a strength that passion rendered irresistible. "You've tried to provoke me to this all the evening—you will have it, you dastardly coward! you WILL ...

— Louis' School Days - A Story for Boys • E. J. May

... till by their own praise they spoil the effect of the praise that others give them. For some tickle and puff themselves up by self-praise, while others, malignantly holding out the small bait of eulogy, provoke others to talk about themselves, while others again ask questions and put inquiries, as was done to the soldier in Menander, merely to ...

— Plutarch's Morals • Plutarch

... fear, well and good. If not, Isaacson would stand a scene, provoke a scandal, even defy Nigel for his own sake. Would ...

— Bella Donna - A Novel • Robert Hichens

... And then she will purr, And thus show her thanks For my kindness to her; I'll not pinch her ears, Nor tread on her paw, Lest I should provoke her To use her sharp claw; I never will vex her, Nor make her displeased, For Pussy can't bear To ...

— Pinafore Palace • Various

... upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their bands; therefore is my wrath poured out upon this place and it shall not ...

— Stories of the Prophets - (Before the Exile) • Isaac Landman

More quotes...