Pro*vo"ca*tive (?), a. [L. provocativus: cf. OF. provocatif.] Serving
or tending to provoke, excite, or stimulate; exciting.
Pro*vo"ca*tive, n. Anything that is provocative; a stimulant; as, a
provocative of appetite.
Pro*vo"ca*tive*ness, n. Quality of being provocative.
Pro*vo"ca*to*ry (?), a. Provocative.
Pro*vok"a*ble (?), a. That may be provoked.
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.
Pro*voke", v. i. 1. To cause provocation or anger.