| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| provoke |
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| SYLLABICATION: | pro·voke |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  pr -v k |
| TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: pro·voked, pro·vok·ing, pro·vokes
1. To incite to anger or resentment. 2. To stir to action or feeling. 3. To give rise to; evoke: provoke laughter. 4. To bring about deliberately; induce: provoke a fight. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English provoken, from Old French provoquer, from Latin prvoc re, to challenge : pr , forth; see pro–1 + vocre, to call; see wekw- in Appendix I. | | SYNONYMS: | provoke, incite, excite, stimulate, arouse, rouse, stir1 These verbs mean to move a person to action or feeling or to summon something into being by so moving a person. Provoke often merely states the consequences produced: “Let my presumption not provoke thy wrath” (Shakespeare). “A situation which in the country would have provoked meetings” (John Galsworthy). To incite is to provoke and urge on: Members of the opposition incited the insurrection. Excite implies a strong or emotional reaction: The movie will fail; the plot excites little interest or curiosity. Stimulate suggests renewed vigor of action as if by spurring or goading: “Our vigilance was stimulated by our finding traces of a large … encampment” (Francis Parkman). To arouse means to awaken, as from inactivity or apathy; rouse means the same, but more strongly implies vigorous or emotional excitement: “In a democratic society like ours, relief must come through an aroused popular conscience that sears the conscience of the people's representatives” (Felix Frankfurter). “The oceangoing steamers … roused in him wild and painful longings” (Arnold Bennett). To stir is to cause activity, strong but usually agreeable feelings, trouble, or commotion: “It was him as stirred up th' young woman to preach last night” (George Eliot). “I have seldom been so … stirred by any piece of writing” (Mark Twain).See also synonyms at annoy.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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