'Provoking' definitions:

Definition of 'provoking'

From: WordNet
adjective
Causing or tending to cause anger or resentment; "a provoking delay at the airport" [syn: agitative, agitating, provoking]

Definition of 'Provoking'

From: GCIDE
  • Provoke \Pro*voke"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Provoked; p. pr. & vb. n. Provoking.] [F. provoquer, L. provocare to call forth; pro forth + vocare to call, fr. vox, vocis, voice, cry, call. See Voice.] To call forth; to call into being or action; esp., to incense to action, a faculty or passion, as love, hate, or ambition; hence, commonly, to incite, as a person, to action by a challenge, by taunts, or by defiance; to exasperate; to irritate; to offend intolerably; to cause to retaliate. [1913 Webster]
  • Obey his voice, provoke him not. --Ex. xxiii. 21. [1913 Webster]
  • Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. --Eph. vi. 4. [1913 Webster]
  • Such acts Of contumacy will provoke the Highest To make death in us live. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust? --Gray. [1913 Webster]
  • To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it, what it provokes in his own soul. -- J. Burroughs. [1913 Webster]
  • Syn: To irritate; arouse; stir up; awake; excite; incite; anger. See Irritate. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Provoking'

From: GCIDE
  • Provoking \Pro*vok"ing\, a. Having the power or quality of exciting resentment; tending to awaken passion or vexation; as, provoking words or treatment. -- {Pro*vok"ing*ly}, adv. [1913 Webster]