How to Use instigate in a Sentence

instigate

verb
  • There has been an increase in the amount of violence instigated by gangs.
  • The government has instigated an investigation into the cause of the accident.
  • In the midst of it all, one new brand is here to instigate change from its founding.
    Brooke Bobb, Vogue, 9 July 2020
  • Ishida believed the dog may have tried to instigate a fight with the cat, which fought back.
    Nicole Blanchard, idahostatesman, 21 May 2018
  • The boy did not instigate the fight, his mother says, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
    Kc Baker, PEOPLE.com, 3 Oct. 2019
  • After all, those customers may perhaps be the party that can instigate the most change in the end.
    Yael Grauer, Ars Technica, 9 Feb. 2020
  • The LaBianca killings were part of Manson’s plan to instigate a race war.
    Christine Pelisek, PEOPLE.com, 26 July 2019
  • Buck hoped to instigate an uprising to force white settlers off the land and return it to the Creeks and Cherokees.
    Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2021
  • And the way to defeat fringe elements who instigate and launch primaries is to fight them.
    Charlie Dent, CNN, 1 May 2022
  • The Ravens contend that Beckham instigated the fight, and that Humphrey didn’t place his hands on Beckham’s throat.
    Mary Kay Cabot, cleveland, 1 Oct. 2019
  • This premise instigates the action in No Hard Feelings.
    Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 June 2023
  • The data also tracks when these changes happened and who may have helped instigate them.
    Kathy Stephenson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 29 Sep. 2020
  • Riyadh and Abu Dhabi even threatened to instigate a coup, forcing Qatar to build a new alliance with Turkey.
    Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Jan. 2021
  • The victim, 31-year-old Bradley Arabie, instigated the fight, court records say, but was dwarfed by Sendejo’s size.
    Rob Kuznia, CNN, 21 Mar. 2023
  • Penn State police last week asked people to avoid the event, saying the speakers would attempt to instigate protests.
    Alyssa Lukpat, WSJ, 25 Oct. 2022
  • The challenge is to instigate a party but make sure that people are invited to the party.
    Vulture, 26 Apr. 2022
  • The plan is to blame it on another cartel and so instigate a war between the two, disrupting the network.
    Peter Keough, BostonGlobe.com, 28 June 2018
  • But Brooks — who instigated things with James last spring in the playoffs as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies — wasn’t going to back down.
    Austin Knoblauch, Los Angeles Times, 20 Nov. 2023
  • Immediately after the terry tribute, a male fan instigates a tug-of-war for the rag, pulling the woman to the ground.
    Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 15 Aug. 2023
  • Some of these bans have been instigated by a single parental complaint.
    Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani, The New Republic, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Often, the interns instigate the best conversations, and the most laughs.
    Thomas Koetting, Journal Sentinel, 19 June 2024
  • At the same time stress can instigate bad behaviors such as smoking and drinking.
    Tom Siegfried, Discover Magazine, 18 Sep. 2018
  • The project was instigated by the Mughal emperor Akbar, who had brought two Persian artists to his court in India.
    Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 23 Feb. 2024
  • So Biden’s federal government has to instigate, to work the gaps.
    Adam Rogers, Wired, 20 Jan. 2021
  • The instigating incident for the plot of the show comes when Angela is called to witness his dead body, hanging from a tree, at the base of which sits a 105-year-old black man in a wheelchair.
    Namwali Serpell, The New York Review of Books, 24 Mar. 2020
  • Roll into the throttle from rest and, by the top of first gear, the V-6 is taxing the tires sufficiently to instigate traction control, which then steps in even more in the wake of the 1-2 upshift.
    Dave Vanderwerp, Car and Driver, 28 June 2021
  • Not only did Chris instigate this, but this is all playing out on TV so reneging is pointless.
    Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 9 Dec. 2022
  • He is known to instigate people – including his brother, the group said.
    Christine Dempsey, courant.com, 18 July 2019
  • No disciplinary action was taken against the classmate who, according to email records, instigated the Sept. 5 exchange of rap lyrics.
    Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2024
  • The trade war Trump instigated in his first term imposed nearly $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.
    Jason Ma, Fortune, 14 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'instigate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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