incite
verbUS, UK /ɪnˈsaɪt/ · South-Asia /ɪnsajʈ/
Etymology From Middle French inciter, from Latin incitō (“to set in motion, hasten, urge, incite”), from in (“in, on”) + citō (“to set in motion, urge”), frequentative of cieō (“to rouse, excite, call”).
1
To call into action.
- The judge was told by the accused that his friends had incited him to commit the crime.
- incite people to violence
3 more examples
- Human rights groups blame the anti-Rohingya propaganda for inciting murders, rapes and the largest forced human migration in recent history.2018 October 15, Paul Mozur, “A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts From Myanmar’s Military”, in The New York Times:
- Who and what exactly incited Amir?2019 April 12, Roger Cohen, “The Incitement in Israel That Killed Yitzhak Rabin”, in The New York Times:
- President Trump has seized on the response in the streets to police brutality against Black men and women to bolster his re-election campaign, employing provocative and sometimes incendiary language and images to incite his followers, demonize his opponents or both.2020 January 9, Peter Baker, “Trump has a long history of language that incites and demonizes.”, in The New York Times:
2
To entreat an act.
3
To instigate a specific incident.
- Synonyms
49 terms
abet, actuate, goose, fuel, light a fire under, send, sting, bring about, cheer, draw, drive, encourage, egg on, engender, evoke, excite, foment, goad, grill, ignite, impel, incite, induce, inflame, instigate, invoke, lash, motive, motivate, move, obligate, oblige, push, promote, prompt, provoke, rouse, set off, spark off, spur, spur on, stimulate, stir, stir up, stoke, tempt, urge, whet, whip up- Antonyms
- curb, daunt, demoralize, demotivate, deter, discourage, dishearten, dissuade, halt, prevent, stop
- Derived terms
- incitable, incitee, inciteful, inciter, incitor, incitingly, incitive, incitory, reincite, unincited
- Related terms
- excite, incitement, ignite, instigate