Other forms: provoked, provoking, provokes
To provoke is to deliberately stir somebody into anger or action. Provoke a reaction, do not provoke him, provoked into replying.
The deliberateness is central. In law, provocation was a partial defence to murder in England until 2009, when it was replaced by loss of control. It also means simply to cause: provoke a debate, provoke an allergic reaction — where no intention is implied. Note provocation, provocative, which of a remark means designed to annoy and of clothing means something else entirely; and unprovoked, which is the standard word in reporting attacks.
1verbprovokeTo deliberately stir somebody into anger or action.
“Don't provoke the dog by pulling its tail.”
2verbcauseTo cause something to happen.
“The minister's comments provoked anger across the country.”
provoke is a calling forth.
Latin provocare is pro-, forth, plus vocare, to call — to call out. The same vocare gives voice, vocation and revoke, so provoking somebody is calling them out.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Latin
prōvocāre
Middle French
provoquer
English, today
provoke
Borrowed from Middle French provoquer, from Old French -, from Latin prōvocāre. a doublet of provocate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA