01 v. t. 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,…
imp. & p. p.
Provoked; p. pr. & vb. n.
Provoking
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1.
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.