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