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provoking |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Provoking \Pro*vok"ing\, a. Having the power or quality of exciting resentment; tending to awaken passion or vexation; as provoking words or treatment. -- {Pro*vok"ing*ly}, adv From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Provoke \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}. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: provoking adj : causing or tending to cause anger or resentment; "a provoking delay at the airport" [syn: {agitative}, {agitating}]
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