- provoke
- provoke 1 Provoke, excite, stimulate, pique, quicken, galvanize can all mean to rouse one into doing or feeling something or to call something into existence by so rousing a person.Provoke stresses a power in the agent or agency sufficient to produce such an effect, but it is often the least explicit of these terms as to the nature or character of that power and may imply nothing more than the effecting of the stated result{
it is not in .. . the emotions provoked by particular events in his life, that the poet is in any way remarkable or interesting— T. S. Eliot
}{inoculate you with that disease ... in order to provoke you to resist it as the mud provokes the cat to wash itself— Shaw
}{his candor provoked a storm of controversy— Times Lit. Sup.
}Excite carries so strong an implication of a rousing that stirs up, moves profoundly, or serves as a challenge to one's powers that the term is often used merely in the sense of to rouse in any of these ways{the ideas which excited my own generation— M
}{a city beautiful enough to delight the romantic, picturesque enough to excite the jaded— Cassidy
}Often, however, excite adds to these implications those found in provoke, and thereby becomes a more explicit or richer word than the latter by suggesting the powerful or stirring nature of the agent or agency and the degree or intensity of the activity stirred up{the curiosity excited by his long absence burst forth in . . . very direct questions— Austen
}{the ruler's rivals, driven to outrage or excited to great envy, can topple governments built on stilts— Flora Lewis
}Stimulate suggests a provoking or exciting by or more often as if by a prick, a spur, or a goad; sometimes therefore it connotes a rousing out of lethargy, indifference, inaction, or inactivity, or a bringing forth into play something that is latent, dormant, or quiescent{the stupidity of the opposition stimulated him, and made him resolute— Mencken
}{I have always believed that it is better to stimulate than to correct, to fortify rather than to punish— Benson
}Often stimulate specifically implies excitement or reexcitement of interest, especially of an intellectual interest{some subjects, which are remarkably stimulating to the mind of the pupil, are neglected, because they are not well adapted for examinations— Inge
}{it's stimulating to be outside the law. It makes you look sharp, it simplifies the day's job— Wouk
}Pique, a term of more restricted application, suggests provocation or stimulation by or as if by something that pricks or irritates{a show of secrecy always piques her curiosity
}{piqued ... by what he considered to be a premature disclosure of the plan— Armbrister
}Quicken implies a stimulation of life, vigor, energy, or activity with consequent beneficial results{the mistress which I serve quickens what's dead— Shak.
}{with his feeling for history quickened and sharpened, he was to find another stimulus to follow up this interest of his boyhood— Brooks
}Galvanize suggests a highly artificial stimulating or quickening, especially of something old, or stiff, or dying{he seemed a mere autom-aton, galvanized into moving and speaking— Hardy
}{galvanize the government into vehement and extraordinary preparation— Sir Winston Churchill
}2 *irritate, exasperate, nettle, aggravate, rile, peeveAnalogous words: affront, *offend, insult, outrage: *anger, incense, madden: agitate, upset, perturb (see DISCOMPOSE)Antonyms: gratify
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
