provocative

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The less salt, vinegar, pepper, &c. at dinner upon the table, so much the better; boys want no such provocatives.

From The Academy Keeper Or Variety of useful Directions Concerning the Management of an Academy, The Terms, Diet, Lodging, Recreation, Discipline, and Instruction of Young Gentlemen. With the Proper Methods of addressing Parents and Guardians of all Ranks and Conditions by Anonymous

So the taste becomes accustomed to the most irritating stimulants, and is finally palsied by their continued application, yet the necessity of having recourse to these provocatives becomes daily more imperious.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 by Various

I take the special provocatives of disease among American women to be in great part social.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 56, June, 1862 by Various

The French consul has been no sooner installed, than he has begun to give the world provocatives to war.

From Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 by Various

And yet they were not such provocatives of difficulty as some of our Eastern friends are accustomed to think.

From Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California with Other Sketches; To Which Is Added the Story of His Attempted Assassination by a Former Associate on the Supreme Bench of the State by Field, Stephen Johnson