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provocation

UK/ˌpɹɒvəˈkeɪʃən/US/ˌpɹɑvəˈkeɪʃən/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,181 of 15,258neutralformal · an editor’s judgement

Other forms: provocations

A provocation is something done on purpose to make somebody angry. The remark that was meant to land.

The word matters most in law, where acting under provocation has long been a partial defence: it does not excuse what was done, but it explains it. Outside court it covers anything deliberately inflammatory, from a calculated provocation to a military provocation on a border. The commonest phrase is at the slightest provocation, meaning it takes almost nothing to set this person off. The adjective provocative can mean either deliberately annoying or deliberately alluring.

Definitions of provocation

  1. 1nounprovocationSomething done deliberately to anger or upset someone.C1

    “He hit out at the slightest provocation.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    provocatio

  2. Old French

    provocacion

  3. Middle English

    provocacioun

  4. English, today

    provocation

From Middle English provocacioun, from Old French provocacion, from Latin provocatio, from Latin prōvocō. by surface analysis, provoke + -ation. a doublet of provokatsiya.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire

First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

provocation in the wild

  • As a legal defense, it may be incorporated in defenses such as self defense-, provocation-, and insanity-based defenses.

    Battered woman syndrome

  • An attack dog (also known as a patrol dog or security dog) is a dog trained to attack a person on command, sight, or by inferred provocation.

    Attack dog

  • Fear or provocation of violence is a statutory offence in England and Wales created under the Public Order Act 1986.

    Fear or provocation of violence

  • An example of a provocation test, performed on an individual, is a skin allergy test.

    Provocation test

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • provoke