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Provoke vs Foment - What's the difference?

provoke | foment |

As verbs the difference between provoke and foment

is that provoke is to cause someone to become annoyed or angry while foment is to incite or cause troublesome acts; to encourage; to instigate.

provoke

English

Verb

(provok)
  • to cause someone to become annoyed or angry.
    • Don't provoke the dog; it may try to bite you.
  • * Bible, Eph. vi. 4
    • Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.
  • to bring about a reaction.
  • * J. Burroughs
    • To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it, what it provokes in his own soul.
  • *{{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=November 12 , author= , title=International friendly: England 1-0 Spain , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Spain were provoked into a response and Villa almost provided a swift equaliser when he rounded Hart but found the angle too acute and could only hit the side-netting.}}
  • (obsolete) To appeal.
    • (Dryden)

    Synonyms

    * (bring about a reaction) bring about, discompose, egg on, engender, evoke, grill, incite, induce, inflame, instigate, invoke, rouse, set off, stir up, whip up

    Derived terms

    * provocation * provocative

    Related terms

    * provocateur

    foment

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To incite or cause troublesome acts; to encourage; to instigate.
    • He was arrested for fomenting a riot; after all, it's bad enough being in a riot but starting one is much worse.
  • (medicine) To apply a poultice to; to bathe with a cloth or sponge.
  • * 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Abbey Grange , Norton (2005), page 1178,
    • The maid had entered with us, and began once more to foment the bruise upon her mistress's brow.

    Derived terms

    * fomentation