egg on

See also: Eggon

English

Etymology

• From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English eggen (“to incite; urge on; instigate”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Norse eggja (“to incite”), from egg (“edge”). More at edge.
• A variant of the archaic "edge on."

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Verb

egg on (third-person singular simple present eggs on, present participle egging on, simple past and past participle egged on)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To encourage or coax a person to do something, especially something foolhardy or reckless.
   • 1892, Lesslie Hall (translator), chapter 35, in Beowulf:

     Then I heard that at morning one brother the other / With edges of irons egged on to murder,

   • 1908, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 25, in In the South Seas:

     He resented the idea of interference from those who had […] egged him on to a new peril.

   • 1912, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 8, in The Adventures of Sally:

     She had deliberately egged him on to wreck his prospects.

Synonyms

• provoke

Translations

provoke

• Dutch: provoceren (nl), aanzetten tot
• French: pousser à (fr)
• Galician: encirrar (gl), apurrar (gl), enxibar, estrizar, isar, istar, enridar, atouzar (gl), envizcar
• German: anstiften
• Greek: παρακινώ (el) (parakinó)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: eggja
• Maori: whakataratara
• Russian: подстрека́ть (ru) impf (podstrekátʹ), подбива́ть (ru) impf (podbivátʹ), подгова́ривать (ru) impf (podgovárivatʹ), нау́ськивать (ru) impf (naúsʹkivatʹ), подзу́живать (ru) impf (podzúživatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: podstreknuti (sh), podgovoriti (sh)
• Spanish: provocar (es), incitar (es), azuzar (es), cizañar (es)

Anagrams

• gonge