From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Provoke \Pro*voke"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Provoked}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Provoking}.] [F. provoquer, L. provocare to call
forth; pro forth + vocare to call, fr. vox, vocis, voice,
cry, call. See {Voice}.]
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.
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Obey his voice, provoke him not. --Ex. xxiii.
21.
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Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. --Eph.
vi. 4.
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Such acts
Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
To make death in us live. --Milton.
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Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust? --Gray.
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To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it,
what it provokes in his own soul. -- J.
Burroughs.
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Syn: To irritate; arouse; stir up; awake; excite; incite;
anger. See {Irritate}.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Provoking \Pro*vok"ing\, a.
Having the power or quality of exciting resentment; tending
to awaken passion or vexation; as, provoking words or
treatment. -- {Pro*vok"ing*ly}, adv.
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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
provoking
adj 1: causing or tending to cause anger or resentment; "a
provoking delay at the airport" [syn: {agitative},
{agitating}, {provoking}]
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