PROVOKING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does provoking mean? 

• PROVOKING (adjective)
  The adjective PROVOKING has 1 sense:

1. causing or tending to cause anger or resentment

  Familiarity information: PROVOKING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROVOKING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Causing or tending to cause anger or resentment

Synonyms:

agitating; agitative; provoking

Context example:

a provoking delay at the airport

Similar:

provocative (serving or tending to provoke, excite, or stimulate; stimulating discussion or exciting controversy)

 Context examples 

Don't start when I chance to speak rather sharply; it's so provoking.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“You are very cruel,” said her sister, “you will not let me smile, and are provoking me to it every moment.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

And I can't bear to hear you provoking the gentlemen, and endangering of yourself more.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was very provoking to be arrested in the act of a first trying-on, and ordered out to make calls in her best array on a warm July day.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He surmised my secret, and has presumed ever since upon the claim which he has upon me, and upon his power of provoking a scandal which would be abhorrent to me.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This can lead to the competitors wiping each other out, especially when the provoking strain is shielded from, or resistant to, their toxins.

(Bacteria Can 'Divide and Conquer' to Vanquish Their Enemies, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Only think! well, that must be infinitely provoking!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"My dear," said he to his lady, "it is very provoking that we should be so few. Why did not you ask the Gilberts to come to us today?"

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

It was certainly very provoking.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

“That I want to be satisfied about?” she replied, with provoking coldness.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)