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[ UK /pɹəvˈə‍ʊk/ ]
[ US /pɹəˈvoʊk/ ]
VERB
  1. evoke or provoke to appear or occur
    Her behavior provoked a quarrel between the couple
  2. call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)
    arouse pity
    evoke sympathy
    raise a smile
  3. provide the needed stimulus for
  4. annoy continually or chronically
    He is known to harry his staff when he is overworked
    This man harasses his female co-workers

How To Use provoke In A Sentence

  • Arguing that FDR provoked the attack was Gore Vidal, novelist, provocateur, T. V. icon, and one of the greatest English-language essayists alive.
  • In a seemingly unprovoked incident, the attackers hit both men and women in the 16-strong party, with a 72-year-old woman left unconscious.
  • This was gracious of him and also provoked an unexpected conspiratorial mirth between the interviewer and interviewee. Times, Sunday Times
  • This has provoked anger among some Labour veterans who spent the Eighties in vicious battles with the impossibilist left to return the party to electability. Despite their hopes of a great revival, the left got left behind
  • This was gracious of him and also provoked an unexpected conspiratorial mirth between the interviewer and interviewee. Times, Sunday Times
  • At other times it provokes genuine, childish delight, the wonderment of having stumbled across a secret.
  • After all, a strong leader provokes a strong reaction.
  • The disclosures last night provoked renewed condemnation of Britain's multibillion-pound arms industry for selling to both sides in the escalating Kashmir crisis.
  • Especially on the left, the defeat in 1849 provoked a period of reassessment which, together with the hardship and loneliness of political exile, led to some substantial political realignments.
  • In acquiescing, the government was well aware that the final terms would provoke peasant hostility, and took suitable precautions.
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