PROVOKES

Verb

provokes

Third-person singular simple present indicative form of provoke

Source: Wiktionary

PROVOKE

Pro*voke", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Provoked; p. pr. & vb. n. Provoking.] Etym: [F. provoquer, L. provocare to call forth; pro forth + vocare to call, fr. vox, vocis, voice, cry, call. See Voice.]

Definition: 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.

Pro*voke", v. i.

1. To cause provocation or anger.

2. To appeal.

Note: [A Latinism] [Obs.] Dryden.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition