Definition of "provocation" []

• The act of provoking or inciting. (noun)
• Something that provokes. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Navy commander in the region says Iran's war games over the past year amount to what he termed provocation because they come right around the juggler of crucial oil shipping lanes."
• "The rise of this provocation is a hard and impenitent heart; and the ruin of sinners is their walking after such a heart, being led by it."
• "Acting Interior Minister Mikhail Mindzayev said no one was hurt by the gunfire, which he called a provocation by Georgian forces."