invoke
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: in'vōk
ipa: /ɪnˈvoʊk/
enpr: in'vōk
ipa: /ɪnˈvəʊk/
Forms: form: invokes
form: invoking
form: invoked
form: invoked
form: envoke
Etymology: From Middle English *invoken, envoken, borrowed from Old French envoquer, from Latin invocāre (“to call upon”), itself from in- + vocare (“to call”). Doublet of invocate.
Senses: synonyms: word: invocate
glosses: To call upon (a person, a god) for help, assistance or guidance.
examples: text: The envoy invoked the King of Kings's magnanimity to reduce his province's tribute after another drought.
text: Whatever the pressures that have invoked the Minister's diktat, the outcome is Gilbertian.
ref: 1964 May, “News and Comment: Minister hamstrings BR workshops”, in Modern Railways, page 291:
text: In May [1995], the court issued an interdict preventing the service withdrawal, pending consultation on the closure to passenger traffic of three short stretches of railway around Glasgow and its hinterland that were only used by the Fort William Sleeper - and for which BR had failed to invoke standard closure procedures.
ref: 2021 August 25, David Clough, “The Sleeper experience”, in RAIL, number 938, page 61:
synonyms: solicit
appeal
petition
glosses: To solicit, petition for, appeal to a favorable attitude.
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: signal
glosses: To call another ship.
raw_tags: of one ship
examples: text: After marriage, the man had anciently (but this was anterior to Christianity) the power of life and death over his wife. She could invoke no law against him; he was her sole tribunal and law.
ref: 1869, John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women:
text: The acquisition of a useless part can hardly be said to raise an organism in the natural scale; and in the case of the imperfect, closed flowers, above described, if any new principle has to be invoked, it must be one of retrogression rather than of progression; and so it must be with many parasitic and degraded animals.
ref: 1872, Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species:
text: It is easier to invoke or to deplore democracy than to say exactly what it is.
ref: 1912, William Sharp McKechnie, The New Democracy and the Constitution:
synonyms: evoke
bring to mind
call to mind
enmind
glosses: To call to mind (something) for some purpose.
examples: text: In certain Christian circles, invoking the Bible constitutes irrefutable proof.
text: He invoked cadaveric poisoning as the reason for the high death rate among priests and monks […]
ref: 1969, Philip Ziegler, The Black Death, Folio Society, published 2007, page 21:
synonyms: cite
reference
appeal
glosses: To appeal for validation to a (notably cited) authority.
examples: text: This satanist ritual invokes Beelzebub.
synonyms: summon
glosses: To conjure up with incantations.
examples: text: Blasphemy is taboo as it may invoke divine wrath.
synonyms: word: bring about
word: incite
word: abet
word: actuate
word: goose
word: send
word: sting
word: bring about
word: cheer
word: drive
word: encourage
word: egg on
word: engender
word: evoke
word: excite
word: foment
word: goad
word: grill
word: ignite
word: impel
word: incite
word: induce
word: inflame
word: instigate
word: invoke
word: lash
word: motive
word: motivate
word: move
word: obligate
word: oblige
word: push
word: promote
word: prompt
word: provoke
word: rouse
word: set off
word: spark off
word: spur
word: spur on
word: stimulate
word: stir
word: stir up
word: stoke
word: tempt
word: urge
word: whet
word: whip up
glosses: To bring about as an inevitable consequence.
examples: text: Interactive programs let the users enter choices and invoke the corresponding routines.
text: […]the selling price and cost of a particular item are derived by the system through a table lookup and assigned to the item at invoking time.
ref: 1974 August 7, “Wholesalers Gain Basic Facts”, in Computerworld:
text: C++ lets you invoke an operator function either by calling the function or by using the overloaded operator with its usual syntax.
ref: 2011, Stephen Prata, C++ Primer Plus:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
synonyms: call
execute
launch
run
glosses: To cause (a program or subroutine) to execute.
Derived terms: invokable
invoker
invokingly
misinvoke
reinvoke
uninvokable
uninvoked
Related terms: evoke
invocate
invocation
invocational
invocatory