provoke

English

Etymology

From French provoquer, from Latin prōvocāre.

Pronunciation

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Verb

provoke (third-person singular simple present provokes, present participle provoking, simple past and past participle provoked)

1. (transitive) to cause someone to become annoyed or angry.

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

2. (transitive) to bring about a reaction.
   • 2011 November 12, “International friendly: England 1-0 Spain”, BBC Sport:

     Spain were provoked into a response and Villa almost provided a swift equaliser when he rounded Hart but found the angle too acute and could only hit the side-netting.

3. (obsolete) To appeal.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (bring about a reaction): bring about, discompose, egg on, engender, evoke, grill, incite, induce, inflame, instigate, invoke, rouse, set off, stir up, whip up

Derived terms

• provocation
• provocative

Related terms

• provocateur

Translations

to cause to become angry

• Arabic: استفز (ar) (istafazza)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 挑釁 (cmn), 挑衅 (cmn) (tiǎoxìn), 扇動 (cmn), 扇动 (cmn) (shāndòng)

• Czech: dráždit (cs)
• Dutch: uitlokken (nl)
• Esperanto: provoki (eo)
• French: provoquer (fr)
• German: provozieren (de)
• Hungarian: provokál (hu)

• Japanese: 怒らせる (ja) (いからせる, ikaraseru), 立腹させる (ja) (りっぷくさせる, rippaku-saseru), 憤慨させる (ja) (ふんがいさせる, fungai-saseru)
• Latin: prōvocō (la)
• Maori: raparapa (mi), makitohene (mi)
• Norwegian: provosere (no)
• Polish: prowokować (pl)
• Russian: провоцировать (ru) (provocírovat') impf., спровоцировать (ru) (sprovocírovat') pf., сердить (ru) (serdít') impf., рассердить (ru) (rasserdít') pf.
• Spanish: provocar (es)
• Swedish: provocera (sv)