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)