INVOKE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does invoke mean? 

• INVOKE (verb)
  The verb INVOKE has 3 senses:

1. summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic

2. cite as an authority; resort to

3. request earnestly (something from somebody); ask for aid or protection

  Familiarity information: INVOKE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INVOKE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they invoke    ... he / she / it invokes   
Past simple: invoked   
Past participle: invoked   
-ing form: invoking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

arouse; bring up; call down; call forth; conjure; conjure up; evoke; invoke; put forward; raise; stir

Context example:

call down the spirits from the mountain

Hypernyms (to "invoke" is one way to...):

call up; summon (cause to become available for use, either literally or figuratively)

Verb group:

call forth; evoke; kick up; provoke (evoke or provoke to appear or occur)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "invoke"):

anathemise; anathemize; bedamn; beshrew; curse; damn; imprecate; maledict (wish harm upon; invoke evil upon)

bless (give a benediction to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

invocation (calling up a spirit or devil)

invocation (an incantation used in conjuring or summoning a devil)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cite as an authority; resort to

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

appeal; invoke

Context example:

She invoked an ancient law

Hypernyms (to "invoke" is one way to...):

advert; bring up; cite; mention; name; refer (make reference to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Request earnestly (something from somebody); ask for aid or protection

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

appeal; invoke

Context example:

Invoke God in times of trouble

Hypernyms (to "invoke" is one way to...):

ask for; bespeak; call for; quest; request (express the need or desire for)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "invoke"):

plead (appeal or request earnestly)

call on; turn (have recourse to or make an appeal or request for help or information to)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s to somebody

Derivation:

invocation (the act of appealing for help)

invocation (a prayer asking God's help as part of a religious service)

 Context examples 

He knew well that I should never willingly invoke the aid of the police against him.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Acting through membrane tyrosine kinase receptors, INSL growth factors are essential for regulation of energy metabolism, proliferation, and differentiation; intracellular signal transduction pathways invoke a chain of phosphorylation-related events.

(Insulin-Like Peptide 4, NCI Thesaurus)

The fare was, indeed, coarse, such as the peasants of the country ate, but I will not doubt that it was set there by the spirits that I had invoked to aid me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

What could I do but invoke a silent blessing on Miss Mills's head, and store Miss Mills's address in the securest corner of my memory!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

No doubt he had invoked the help of the Holy Spirit to subdue the anger I had roused in him, and now believed he had forgiven me once more.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above smaller matters when the mother-spirit is invoked; I felt this big sorrowing man's head resting on me, as though it were that of the baby that some day may lie on my bosom, and I stroked his hair as though he were my own child.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And really, after a day or two of confusion worse confounded, it was delightful by degrees to invoke order from the chaos ourselves had made.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I look back on the time I write of; I invoke the innocent figure that I dearly loved, to come out from the mists and shadows of the past, and turn its gentle head towards me once again; and I can still declare that this one little speech was constantly in my memory.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am only bound to invoke Memory where I know her responses will possess some degree of interest; therefore I now pass a space of eight years almost in silence: a few lines only are necessary to keep up the links of connection.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Little did he think, when I took leave of him at night, that he had just given his full consent to my being engaged to Dora, and that I was invoking blessings on his head!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)