How to Use provocation in a Sentence

provocation

noun

• With hardly any provocation, the crowd began to chant.
• He can turn violent at the least provocation.
• Her calmness in the face of repeated provocations impressed her friends.
• To do so, for artists like Braque and Höch, was a means of provocation.
  — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 16 Aug. 2024
• That great unknown alone makes the provocation worth the hype.
  — Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2023
• And provocation includes things that make the pain worse.
  — Jenny Sweigard, Verywell Health, 5 Mar. 2024
• This show can feel like a provocation, a dare to hate Carmichael, then love him and back again.
  — Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 13 May 2024
• The young man was dark-complexioned and thin and seemed steady, and ready to take on any provocation.
  — Alaa Al Aswany, Harper's Magazine, 22 June 2021
• There was provocation on the part of both Bradley and Allissa.
  — Emily Palmer, Peoplemag, 13 Sep. 2023
• The label name is a clear provocation to those who see jazz as extinct.
  — Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2021
• That doesn’t mean Ishiba will be weak in the face of Chinese provocations.
  — Arata Yamamoto, NBC News, 27 Sep. 2024
• The protection squad will no doubt be seen as a provocation by Arabs in town.
  — Amy Kellogg, Fox News, 14 May 2021
• There has to be at least a minimum of provocation in art.
  — New York Times, 3 Feb. 2022
• In the worldview of this movie, there’s no room for it: There is no such thing as love conquered by provocation.
  — K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 6 Apr. 2022
• And so the provocations and groans continue, for two hours and 40 minutes that could have been half or twice as long.
  — Jesse Green, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2024
• Some of Tibi’s florals and swirls drew the eye downward, a quiet provocation.
  — Miami Staff, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024
• But there is more than prurience or even provocation at work here.
  — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 1 Sep. 2023
• All of this deserves headlines, which, by their nature, err on the side of provocation.
  — Kent Sepkowitz, CNN, 2 Aug. 2021
• Then horror struck, when a man pulled a gun on them without provocation and shots rang out.
  — Marlene Lenthang, NBC News, 30 Nov. 2023
• Very awkward message to project to a crowd of moviegoers, but it is meant to be a provocation.
  — Jennifer Wilson, The New Republic, 27 Dec. 2022
• Berlin fears that Moscow will view the presence of German tanks as a provocation and wants the US to send its tanks to give it cover.
  — Frida Ghitis, CNN, 22 Jan. 2023
• So, the case is complex, but the larger provocation is simple.
  — Bernard Avishai, The New Yorker, 13 May 2021
• Keeping the base open could hardly be called a provocation, given it’s been around for years.
  — William Lloyd Stearman, WSJ, 19 May 2021
• But the dare, the invitation to couple with the man who is your brother, still retains the charge of provocation.
  — Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 22 Apr. 2022
• Palestinians see the event, which passes through the heart of the Muslim Quarter, as a provocation.
  — Josef Federman, ajc, 29 May 2022
• The stranger lunged at the victim with a sharp object without any provocation, slashing his neck, cops said.
  — Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 13 July 2024
• Sheikh Jarrah and al-Aqsa were parts of a wider, volatile provocation that Israel offered Hamas.
  — David Shulman, The New York Review of Books, 3 June 2021
• The same cycle has played out again and again: Comic Sans is perceived as a provocation, and social media takes the bait.
  — Simon Garfield, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2024
• So, expect provocations, false-flag outrages, high-profile kidnappings of westerners and much else.
  — Melik Kaylan, Forbes, 10 Dec. 2024
• Touchy Mars in Cancer opposes harsh Pluto in Capricorn, sending provocations flying.
  — Tarot.com, Sun Sentinel, 3 Nov. 2024

Last Updated: 10 Jan 2025