Provoke

PROVOKE', literally, to "call forth;" hence, "to challenge," "incite." In this sense used in the A.V. of 1 Chr 21:1; Rom 10:19; Hosea 11:11, Rom 11:14; 2 Cor 9:2; Heb 10:24.

PROVOKE', literally, to "call forth;" hence, "to challenge," "incite." In this sense used in the A.V. of 1 Chr 21:1; Rom 10:19; Hosea 11:11, Rom 11:14; 2 Cor 9:2; Heb 10:24.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

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.

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

Part of speech: verb (v.)

1. To cause provocation or anger.

2. To appeal.