Anything that brings about a strong reaction can be said to provoke. You can provoke that lion if you want. But if he responds by attacking, don't come running to me.
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.
Verb
provide the needed stimulus for
Verb
call forth; "Her behavior provoked a quarrel between the couple"
Verb
call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses); "arouse pity"; "raise a smile"; "evoke sympathy"
Verb
annoy continually or chronically; "He is known to harry his staff when he is overworked"; "This man harasses his female co-workers"
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, 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.
v. i.
To cause provocation or anger.
v. i.
To appeal. [A Latinism]
Provoke
Obey his voice, provoke him not.
Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.
Such acts Of contumacy will provoke the Highest To make death in us live.
Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust?
To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it, what it provokes in his own soul.
Provoke
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.
To cause provocation or anger.
Usage Examples
The best films of any kind, narrative or documentary, provoke questions.
To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become the moral duty of literature.
After that he turned to the question of invading England. Hitler said that during the previous year he could not afford to risk a possible failure apart from that, he had not wished to provoke the British, as he hoped to arrange peace talks.
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Other Usage Examples'Funny Games' was conceived as a provocation. My other films are different. If people feel my other films are, or respond to them as provocation, then that's quite different. 'Funny Games' is the only one of mine where my intention was to provoke the audience.
You've got to honor your relationship with your audience - that they sit down because they want to be entertained. And that doesn't mean you can't provoke them and antagonize them and challenge them in the course of the entertainment as long as you keep the entertainment part of the equation alive.
I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.
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