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Provoke vs Ridicule - What's the difference?

provoke | ridicule |

In transitive terms the difference between provoke and ridicule

is that provoke is to bring about a reaction while ridicule is to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of.

In obsolete terms the difference between provoke and ridicule

is that provoke is to appeal while ridicule is ridiculous.

As a noun ridicule is

derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour.

As an adjective ridicule is

ridiculous.

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

    ridicule

    English

    Verb

    (ridicul)
  • to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of
  • His older sibling constantly ridiculed him with sarcastic remarks.

    Synonyms

    * (l)

    Noun

  • derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, / Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone.
  • An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock.
  • * Buckle
  • [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries.
  • * Foxe
  • To the people but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule .
  • The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.
  • * Addison
  • to see the ridicule of this practice

    Synonyms

    * See also

    See also

    * humiliation

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) ridiculous
  • This action became so ridicule . — Aubrey.
    (Webster 1913)