INCITEMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does incitement mean? 

• INCITEMENT (noun)
  The noun INCITEMENT has 4 senses:

1. an act of urging on or spurring on or rousing to action or instigating

2. needed encouragement

3. something that incites or provokes; a means of arousing or stirring to action

4. the act of exhorting; an earnest attempt at persuasion

  Familiarity information: INCITEMENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INCITEMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An act of urging on or spurring on or rousing to action or instigating

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

incitation; incitement

Context example:

the incitement of mutiny

Hypernyms ("incitement" is a kind of...):

arousal; rousing (the act of arousing)

Derivation:

incite (provoke or stir up)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Needed encouragement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

incitement; provocation

Context example:

the result was a provocation of vigorous investigation

Hypernyms ("incitement" is a kind of...):

encouragement (the expression of approval and support)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "incitement"):

subornation (underhandedly or improperly inducing someone to do something improper or unlawful)

Derivation:

incite (give an incentive for action)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Something that incites or provokes; a means of arousing or stirring to action

Classified under:

Nouns denoting goals

Synonyms:

incitation; incitement; provocation

Hypernyms ("incitement" is a kind of...):

mental energy; psychic energy (an actuating force or factor)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "incitement"):

signal (any incitement to action)

Derivation:

incite (urge on; cause to act)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of exhorting; an earnest attempt at persuasion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

exhortation; incitement

Hypernyms ("incitement" is a kind of...):

persuasion; suasion (the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "incitement"):

pep talk (a speech of exhortation attempting to instill enthusiasm and determination in a team or staff)

 Context examples 

I know not by what chain of thought the idea presented itself, but it instantly darted into my mind that the murderer had come to mock at my misery and taunt me with the death of Clerval, as a new incitement for me to comply with his hellish desires.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

To be losing such pleasures was no trifle; to be losing them, because she was in the midst of closeness and noise, to have confinement, bad air, bad smells, substituted for liberty, freshness, fragrance, and verdure, was infinitely worse: but even these incitements to regret were feeble, compared with what arose from the conviction of being missed by her best friends, and the longing to be useful to those who were wanting her!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

From you, from my home, I shall never again have the smallest incitement to move; and if I do mix in other society, it will be only to shew that my spirit is humbled, my heart amended, and that I can practise the civilities, the lesser duties of life, with gentleness and forbearance.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I had not yet been a year in this country before I contracted such a love and veneration for the inhabitants, that I entered on a firm resolution never to return to humankind, but to pass the rest of my life among these admirable Houyhnhnms, in the contemplation and practice of every virtue, where I could have no example or incitement to vice.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)