instigate
pronunciation
How to pronounce instigate in British English:
UK [ˈɪnstɪɡeɪt]
How to pronounce instigate in American English:
US [ˈɪnstɪɡeɪt]
-
- Verb:
- provoke or stir up
- serve as the inciting cause of
Word Origin
- instigate
- instigate: see stick
- instigate (v.)
- 1540s, back-formation from instigation or else from Latin instigatus, past participle of instigare "to urge on, incite" (see instigation). Related: Instigated; instigates; instigating.
Example
- 1. Some factions in the government think opponents are spoiling to instigate an arab spring-style revolution .
- 2. Some even warned me that they would instigate a boycott of my books if I came .
- 3. Chief cabinet secretary osamu fujimura , after a government meeting discussing power shortages , said that there was a " need to widely instigate power-saving measures " due to the shutdown of nuclear facilities .
- 4. Anyone suggesting there was an ethnic basis to riots was " trying to instigate tension between different ethnic groups " .
- 5. If japan wants to instigate an armed conflict which may eventually involve china and the us on opposing sides , it would be a fantasy to imagine that any such conflict would enable one side to completely overwhelm the other without quickly escalating from a conventional war to a non-conventional war .