Library / English Dictionary

INCITE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Provoke or stir up

Example:

set off great unrest among the people

Synonyms:

incite; instigate; set off; stir up

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "incite" is one way to...):

provoke; stimulate (provide the needed stimulus for)

Cause:

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "incite"):

raise (activate or stir up)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Derivation:

incitation (an act of urging on or spurring on or rousing to action or instigating)

incitation (something that incites or provokes; a means of arousing or stirring to action)

incitement (an act of urging on or spurring on or rousing to action or instigating)

inciter (someone who deliberately foments trouble)

incitive (arousing to action or rebellion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Urge on; cause to act

Example:

The other children egged the boy on, but he did not want to throw the stone through the window

Synonyms:

egg on; incite; prod

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "incite"):

goose (prod into action)

halloo (urge on with shouts)

goad (urge with or as if with a goad)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

incitation (an act of urging on or spurring on or rousing to action or instigating)

incitation; incitement (something that incites or provokes; a means of arousing or stirring to action)

inciter (someone who deliberately foments trouble)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Give an incentive for action

Example:

This moved me to sacrifice my career

Synonyms:

actuate; incite; motivate; move; prompt; propel

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "incite" is one way to...):

cause; do; make (give rise to; cause to happen or occur, not always intentionally)

Verb group:

affect; impress; move; strike (have an emotional or cognitive impact upon)

move (arouse sympathy or compassion in)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

They incite him to write the letter

Derivation:

incitation (something that incites or provokes; a means of arousing or stirring to action)

incitement (needed encouragement)

Credits

 Context examples: 

My master was yet wholly at a loss to understand what motives could incite this race of lawyers to perplex, disquiet, and weary themselves, and engage in a confederacy of injustice, merely for the sake of injuring their fellow-animals; neither could he comprehend what I meant in saying, they did it for hire.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)