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
Oswaldo Zavala is a Mexican academic and writer whose provocatively titled 2022 book — “Drug Cartels Do Not Exist” — argues for a bold reframing of how to think about organized crime in his country.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 28, 2024
I’d been minding my own business at home, hadn’t dressed up, had not acted provocatively, had not flirted, had not, I was sure, smiled when he waved for me to look.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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.
