Provoke

//pɹəˈvoʊk// verb

verb ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To cause someone to become annoyed or angry. transitive

    "Don't provoke the dog; it may try to bite you."

  2. 2
    provide the needed stimulus for wordnet
  3. 3
    To bring about a reaction. transitive

    "To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it, what it provokes in his own soul."

  4. 4
    evoke or provoke to appear or occur wordnet
  5. 5
    To appeal. obsolete

    "Even Arius and Pelagius durst provoke To what the centuries preceding spoke."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses) wordnet
  2. 7
    annoy continually or chronically wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
arousebring aboutevokeharassharasshassle

Example

More examples

"The cat will scratch you if you provoke it."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French provoquer, from Old French, from Latin prōvocāre. Doublet of provocate.

Related phrases

picking quarrels and provoking troublebring about

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.