-provoke-

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 ]