Provoke
King James Dictionary [1]
PROVO'KE, L.provoco, to call forth pro and voco, to call.
1. To call into action to arouse to excite as, to provoke anger or wrath by offensive words or by injury to provoke war. 2. To make angry to offend to incense to enrage.
Ye fathers,provoke not your children to wrath. Ephesians 6
Often provoked by the insolence of some of the bishops--
3. To excite to cause as, to provoke perspiration to provoke a smile. 4. To excite to stimulate to increase.
The taste of pleasure provokes the appetite, and every successive indulgence of vice which is to form a habit, is easier than the last.
5. To challenge.
He now provokes the sea-gods from the shore.
6. To move to incite to stir up to induce by motives. Romans 10
Let us consider one another to provoke to love and to good works. Hebrews 10
7. To incite to rouse as, to provoke one to anger. Deuteronomy 32
PROVO'KE, To appeal. A Latinism,not used.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( v. i.) To cause provocation or anger.
(2): ( v. t.) 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.
(3): ( v. i.) To appeal. [A Latinism]
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [3]
Provoke . ‘To provoke’ is now ‘to try to call forth evil passions,’ but in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] it is used in the sense of inciting to any action, good or evil, as 2 Corinthians 9:2 ‘Your zeal hath provoked very many.’ ‘Provocation,’ however, always occurs in a bad sense. It is used in Psalms 95:8 of the conduct of the children of Israel towards God in the wilderness.
