The AI-powered English dictionary
comparative more provocative, superlative most provocative
Serving or tending to elicit a strong, often negative sentiment in another person; exasperating. examples
Serving or tending to excite, stimulate or arouse sexual interest; sexy. examples
plural provocatives
(obsolete) Something that provokes an appetite, especially a sexual appetite; an aphrodisiac. quotations
She used by way of Provocative, to read the wanton Verses of her Paramour in the day time [...].
1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury
[A]nd that one great and all-important occasion and provocative of these beliefs was actually the rise of self-consciousness — that is, the coming of the mind to a more or less distinct awareness of itself and of its own operation, and the consequent development and growth of Individualism, and of the Self-centred attitude in human thought and action.
1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., page 165