provocatively
Americanadverb
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.
A US negotiator even provocatively put an empty chair with a Chinese flag.
From Barron's ● Feb. 1, 2026
“Have y’all not learned?” an agent provocatively asks a legal observer in a video that’s been circulating among volunteers, two days after Good was killed.
From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2026
On social media, he posts more provocatively than any other coach, hurling grenades at anyone and everyone, including his old bosses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
But instead of provocatively pursuing that unholy bond, the director only finds chum.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
Doubletree Mutt looked into the barn, his big tail waving provocatively, and Jody was so incensed at his health that he found a hard black clod on the floor and deliberately threw it.
From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
