From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
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.
[1913 Webster]
Obey his voice, provoke him not. --Ex. xxiii.
21.
[1913 Webster]
Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. --Eph.
vi. 4.
[1913 Webster]
Such acts
Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
To make death in us live. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust? --Gray.
[1913 Webster]
To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it,
what it provokes in his own soul. -- J.
Burroughs.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: To irritate; arouse; stir up; awake; excite; incite;
anger. See Irritate.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Provoke \Pro*voke"\, v. i.
1. To cause provocation or anger.
[1913 Webster]
2. To appeal.
Note: [A Latinism] [Obs.] --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
provoke
v 1: call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses); "arouse
pity"; "raise a smile"; "evoke sympathy" [syn: arouse,
elicit, enkindle, kindle, evoke, fire, raise,
provoke]
2: evoke or provoke to appear or occur; "Her behavior provoked a
quarrel between the couple" [syn: provoke, evoke, {call
forth}, kick up]
3: provide the needed stimulus for [syn: provoke, stimulate]
4: annoy continually or chronically; "He is known to harry his
staff when he is overworked"; "This man harasses his female
co-workers" [syn: harass, hassle, harry, chivy,
chivvy, chevy, chevvy, beset, plague, molest,
provoke]