provoking

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of provoke.

   The two sides accused each other of provoking the conflict.

   He was provoking the crowd with every word he spoke.

   Note

   Two transitive meanings travel in this form. One is angering someone (provoking the crowd), and the other is bringing something about (provoking the conflict). To tell it apart from the adjective meaning "irritating", look for an object. The verb form takes one, while the adjective takes none and is graded instead: more provoking, most provoking. A third, obsolete meaning of provoke, "to appeal," turns up only in older writing.

2. 2
   adjective

   Causing annoyance or irritation.

   The critic's provoking tone overshadowed whatever fair points he made.

   There was something deliberately provoking about the way she ignored his question.

   Similarannoying, irritating, exasperating, aggravating, infuriating

   Oppositesoothing, calming

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act of stirring someone to anger or reaction; provocation.

   The judge ruled that the defendant's provoking did not excuse the assault.

   Years of quiet provoking had left the household tense and resentful.

   Similarprovocation, goading, taunting, baiting, needling

   Note

   Here the gerund has hardened into a countable noun, so it can take a plural: provokings. Clifford Adelman's No Loaves, No Parables (1974) uses it this way, describing a political consciousness dependent on "their provokings." The plural suits a series of separate acts of stirring people up, where provocation would more often name the offense as a single thing.

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