Definitions for provoke
prəˈvoʊkpro·voke

Princeton's WordNet(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. arouse, elicit, enkindle, kindle, evoke, fire, raise, provokeverb

   call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)

   "arouse pity"; "raise a smile"; "evoke sympathy"

2. provoke, evoke, call forth, kick upverb

   evoke or provoke to appear or occur

   "Her behavior provoked a quarrel between the couple"

3. provoke, stimulateverb

   provide the needed stimulus for

4. harass, hassle, harry, chivy, chivvy, chevy, chevvy, beset, plague, molest, provokeverb

   annoy continually or chronically

   "He is known to harry his staff when he is overworked"; "This man harasses his female co-workers"

Wiktionary(3.25 / 4 votes)Rate this definition:

1. provokeverb

   to cause someone to become annoyed or angry.

   Don't provoke the dog, it may try to bite you.

   Etymology: From provoquer, from provocare.

2. provokeverb

   to bring about a reaction.

   Etymology: From provoquer, from provocare.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Provokeverb

   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

2. Provokeverb

   to cause provocation or anger

3. Provokeverb

   to appeal. [A Latinism]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Provoke

   Provoke is the third album of Dutch death metal band Altar. It was released in 1998 by Displeased Records.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Provoke

   prō-vōk′, v.t. to call forth: to summon: to excite or call into action: to excite with anger: to offend: (B.) to challenge.—n. Provocā′tion, act of provoking: that which provokes: any cause of danger.—adjs. Provoc′ative, Provoc′atory, tending to provoke or excite.—n. anything that stirs up or provokes.—n. Provoc′ativeness, the quality of being provocative.—adj. Provō′kable.—ns. Provōke′ment (Spens.), provocation; Provō′ker, one who, or that which, provokes, causes, or promotes.—adj. Provō′king, irritating.—adv. Provō′kingly.—The provocation, the sojourn of the Jews in the wilderness, when they provoked God. [Fr. provoquer—L. provocāre, pro, forth, vocāre, to call.]

Matched Categories

1. • Challenge

British National Corpus

1. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'provoke' in Verbs Frequency: #721

How to pronounce provoke?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say provoke in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of provoke in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of provoke in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of provoke in a Sentence

1. Pope Francis:

   You can't provoke, you can't insult the faith of others, you can't make fun of faith.

2. Charles Babbage:

   On two occasions I have been asked, – "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

3. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve:

   Ninety percent of those who commit terrorist acts fall into it after regularly consulting websites or blogs that call for or provoke terrorism.

4. Christopher Wylie:

   One of the things that did provoke me to leave was the beginnings of discussions of voter disengagement, I have seen documents reference and I recall conversations that it was intended to focus on African-American voters, the company learned that there were segments of the population that responded to messages like 'drain the swamp' or images of border walls or indeed paranoia about the 'deep state' that weren't necessarily reflected in mainstream polling or mainstream political discourse that Steve Bannon was interested in to help build his movement.

5. Sean Spicer:

   I think the one thing that people forget is that at the end of the day, our failure to comply with NAFTA is going to result in the loss of more jobs here in America, there are consequences for this kind of action, and they tend to build upon each other and provoke more responses. Is that really the kind of path we want to go down?

Images & Illustrations of provoke

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