English Dictionary: provoked | by the DICT Development Group |
2 results for provoked | |
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
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. 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. Syn: To irritate; arouse; stir up; awake; excite; incite; anger. See {Irritate}. |