verb
definition
To cause someone to become annoyed or angry.
example
Don't provoke the dog; it may try to bite you.
definition
To bring about a reaction.
definition
To appeal.
noun
definition
Provocation
adjective
definition
Annoying; irritating
Examples of provoking in a Sentence
Deidre didn't move, afraid of provoking him.
Deidre suspected the result of provoking either man was death to someone.
Lastly, the conscience of King William, though since the acquisition of Lauenburg he had developed a taste for conquest, shrank from provoking war with a German power.
He is not the only man whom absorption in work and infirmity of temper have made into a provoking husband, though few wives have had Mrs Carlyle's capacity for expressing the sense of injustice.
About this period he was charged with the defence of a member of the national guard of Brives, which was accused of provoking disorders in the department of La Correze.
The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates.
Medical Legal workshop was extremely pertinent to my role, very thought provoking.
To the situation defined by concordat, however, succeeds another situation, more or less uncertain and more or less strained, in which the two powers legislate separately on mixed matters, sometimes not without provoking conflicts.
In July of that year Samuel de Champlain discovered the lake which bears his name and on its shores led his Algonquian Indian allies against the Iroquois, thus provoking against his countrymen the hostility of a people who for years were to hold the balance of power between the English and the French in America.
Here as elsewhere in his dominions his intentions were excellent, but his reforming zeal outran discretion, and his hasty and self-opinionated interferences with treaty rights and traditional privileges ended in provoking opposition and disaster.
The red color is an added attraction, provoking pike into attacking, these poppers are however resistant to pike's teeth.
From there, the chemical treatment of the wool itself can render a perfect product much less so, provoking the tell-tale rashes, among other things.
Divine Caroline also has a list of ten questions, several of which are very thought provoking.
Something that is this emotionally provoking should be taken seriously.
In 2008, Ice-T said Soulja Boy killed rap music, provoking a YouTube feud between the two.
It's easy to see how these questions can be funny, or thought provoking, or both.
Be sure to engage visitors to the fan page in dialogue; post thought provoking, open-ended questions, updates, and simple, interesting statements that support the company, organization or individual's brand image.
The submission to censorship which this entailed was sufficiently inconsistent and she wrote to the emperor one of the unfortunate letters, at once undignified and provoking, of which she had the secret.
The losses which they sustained by land roused the Byzantines to indemnify themselves on the vessels which still crowded the harbour, and the merchantmen which cleared the straits; but this had the effect of provoking a war with the neighbouring naval powers.
Wholly unaware of the strength of the forces which he was provoking, the duke, at the opening of the parliament which met after the death of George IV., declared against any parliamentary reform whatever.
Twice, indeed, during that period the chancellor ran the risk of provoking war.
The Dalai Lama, inspired by Dorjiev, now took steps to bring on a crisis by provoking England.
On the other hand, many of his ideas have passed into the common literary stock, and have been more precisely elaborated by later writers on sociology and history; and though his own work is now somewhat neglected, its influence was immensely valuable in provoking further research and speculation.
To satisfy the anti-colonial party he ceded Kassala to Great Britain, provoking thereby much indignation in Italy.
A few days later he was proceeding toward the Oregon border when new instructions from Washington caused him to retrace his steps and, perhaps, to consider plans for provoking war.
His famous description of Greek fire has a most provoking mixture of circumstantial detail with absence of verifying particulars.
Apparently he was set on provoking a refusal, and thus getting an excuse for seizing the person of the king.
A controversy on the boundary of Canada and the United States was provoking increasing bitterness on both sides of the Atlantic. The intervention of Lord Palmerston in Syria, which resulted in a great military success at Acre, was embittering the relations between France and England, while the unfortunate expedition to Afghanistan, which the Whigs had approved, was already producing embarrassment, and was about to result in disaster.
The presentation of this ultimatum, which was accompanied by the despatch of troops to Canada, was very nearly provoking war with the United States.
In 1768 he was recalled, ostensibly because of a mesalliance with Mme Testa, widow of a Pera surgeon, but really because Choiseul thought him not zealous enough in provoking a quarrel between Russia and Turkey.
By provoking England, France, Holland and the Empire at once it brought a flood of disaster on Spain for which Alberoni was held responsible.
His belligerent attitude toward car driving became the catalyst for this thought provoking drama.
He quickly succeeds in provoking the builders into taking strike action.
And an American flying gunship shot up a civilian wedding engagement party in Afghanistan, provoking outrage throughout the Islamic world.
His forte is delivering intelligent, thought provoking material that pulls no punches and is always incisive, relevant and up to date.
His thought provoking songs really captured our imagination during his " open mic " set.
The red color is an added attraction, provoking pike into attacking, these poppers are however resistant to pike into attacking, these poppers are however resistant to pike's teeth.
Comments from previous Masterclass attendees " The session was tho provoking and interesting.
But the words I quote above are only one instance of what repeated on average once every five pages I now find very provoking.
The broadcast media and portions of the print media continued to practice a great degree of self-censorship in order to avoid provoking government retribution.
Attempts by officials to stop the Optimists having a water fight proved unwise, provoking a wet response.
The whole story was most probably the creation of imaginations stimulated by torture and despair, unless it was a deliberate fiction set forth for the purpose of provoking hostility against the Jews.
He then changed the name of his paper to the Courrier des quatre-vingt-trois departements, continuing his incendiary propaganda, which had no small share in provoking the popular insurrections of June and August 1792.
And yet he, who was generally the haughtiest and most irritable of mankind, who was but too prompt to resent anything which looked like a slight on the part of a purse-proud bookseller, or of a noble and powerful patron, bore patiently from mendicants, who, but for his bounty, must have gone to the workhouse, insults more provoking than those for which he had knocked down Osborne and bidden defiance to Chesterfield.
In reality Prince Lobanov was merely trying to establish a strong Russian hegemony among these nationalities, and he had not the slightest intention of provoking a new crisis in the Eastern Question so long as the general European situation did not afford Russia a convenient opportunity for solving it in her own interest without serious intervention from other powers.
His advanced age induced him to resign the control of affairs to his adopted nephew, Cardinal Paluzzi, who embroiled the papacy in disputes with the resident ambassadors, and incurred the enmity of Louis XIV., thus provoking the long controversy over the regalia (see Innocent Xi.).
I pointed this out to everybody with provoking persistency, but no one seemed equal to the task of providing the doll with eyes.
Thought provoking and well argued rant about the lack of attention to basic interoperability in elearning standard implementation.
It is dark and mysterious, and has thought provoking mental exchanges.
The light wave talk was followed by an informative and thought provoking talk on yagi antenna construction for the 1.2 and 2.3GHz bands.