invoke
English
Alternative forms
- envoke (archaic or nonstandard)
Etymology
From Middle English *invoken, envoken, borrowed from Old French envoquer, from Latin invocāre (“to call upon”), itself from in- + vocare (“to call”). Doublet of invocate.
Pronunciation
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Verb
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- (transitive) To call upon (a person, a god) for help, assistance or guidance.
- (transitive) To solicit, petition for, appeal to a favorable attitude.
- The envoy invoked the King of Kings's magnanimity to reduce his province's tribute after another drought.
- (transitive) To call to mind (something) for some purpose.
- 1869, John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women:
- After marriage, the man had anciently (but this was anterior to Christianity) the power of life and death over his wife. She could invoke no law against him; he was her sole tribunal and law.
- 1872, Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species:
- The acquisition of a useless part can hardly be said to raise an organism in the natural scale; and in the case of the imperfect, closed flowers, above described, if any new principle has to be invoked, it must be one of retrogression rather than of progression; and so it must be with many parasitic and degraded animals.
- 1912, William Sharp McKechnie, The New Democracy and the Constitution:
- It is easier to invoke or to deplore democracy than to say exactly what it is.
- (transitive) To appeal for validation to a (notably cited) authority.
- In certain Christian circles, invoking the Bible constitutes irrefutable proof.
- 1969, Philip Ziegler, The Black Death, Folio Society 2007, p. 21:
- He invoked cadaveric poisoning as the reason for the high death rate among priests and monks […]
- (transitive) To conjure up with incantations.
- This satanist ritual invokes Beelzebub.
- (transitive) To bring about as an inevitable consequence.
- Blasphemy is taboo as it may invoke divine wrath.
- (transitive, computing) To cause (a program or subroutine) to execute.
- Interactive programs let the users enter choices and invoke the corresponding routines.
- 2011, Stephen Prata, C++ Primer Plus:
- C++ lets you invoke an operator function either by calling the function or by using the overloaded operator with its usual syntax.
Synonyms
- (to call upon): invocate (obsolete)
- (appeal for validation): cite, reference, appeal
- (bring about): bring about, incite; see also Thesaurus:incite
- (petition for): solicit, appeal, petition
- (computing, cause a program or subroutine to execute): call, execute, launch, run
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
call upon someone for help etc.
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appeal for validation to a (notably cited) authority
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conjure up by incantation
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bring about as an inevitable consequence
|
solicit, petition for
(computing) cause to execute
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Further reading
- “invoke”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “invoke”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Computing