- Provoking
- Provoke 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.
[1913 Webster]
Obey his voice, provoke him not. --Ex. xxiii. 21. [1913 Webster]
Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. --Eph. vi. 4. [1913 Webster]
Such acts Of contumacy will provoke the Highest To make death in us live. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust? --Gray. [1913 Webster]
To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it, what it provokes in his own soul. -- J. Burroughs. [1913 Webster]
Syn: To irritate; arouse; stir up; awake; excite; incite; anger. See {Irritate}. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
