egg on
verbEtymology * From Middle English eggen (“to incite; urge on; instigate”), from Old Norse eggja (“to incite”), from egg (“edge”). More at edge. * A variant of the archaic "edge on."
1
Idiomatic To encourage or coax (a person) to do something, especially something foolhardy or reckless.
- The Neatreſſe longing for the reſt, did egge him on to tell / How faire ſhe vvas, and vvho ſhe vvas.1586, William Warner, “The Fourth Booke. Chapter XX.”, in Albions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island: […], London: […] George Robinson [and R. Ward] for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 86:
- The affair made a great sensation, and the Darleyfords and their connections said bitter things of Mrs. Dallington, and talked much of rash youth and subtle woman of discreeter years, and passions shamefully inflamed, and purposes wickedly egged on.1831, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter V, in The Young Duke. […], volume II (book III), London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 59:
4 more examples
- He resented the idea of interference from those who had […] egged him on to a new peril.1891 February–December, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter XXV, in In the South Seas […], New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1896, →OCLC:
- Then I heard that at morning one brother the other / With edges of irons egged on to murder,1892, chapter 35, in Lesslie Hall, transl., Beowulf:
- She had deliberately egged him on to wreck his prospects.1921 October 8 – December 31, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VIII, in Mostly Sally [The Adventures of Sally], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 23 March 1923, →OCLC:
- Others, including Sky’s former political editor Adam Boulton, have said the overall impression that Trump egged on the insurrection was fundamentally true. It is not unusual practice to edit together sections of a long speech to accurately summarise it.2025 November 10, Kevin Rawlinson, “BBC resignations are result of internal ‘coup’, says former Sun editor”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- Derived terms
- egger-on, egger-oner