Sentence examples for were to provoke from inspiring English sources
The most important would be if military action were to provoke anti-American uprisings, notably in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
We discussed various options for ending the situation with him and we are also attempting, as I already said, to make it quite clear to Saddam Hussein that if Iraq were to provoke military action, then the result would be a tragedy first and foremost for the Iraqi people themselves, for the whole of the region and for the whole of the world.
It may well be the case that he asked, or rather was aware of, the questions whose answers were to provoke the rise of modern science (as Nardi claimed); but he by no means resolved them.
Although most Republicans supported the plan, some privately and publicly worried about the possible political fallout if the strategy were to provoke a shutdown.
"What I want is to provoke people.
In this contest, the first goal is to provoke conflict.
Our role here is to provoke a conversation.
One can only hope that it was to provoke outrage.
If the goal was to provoke, it worked.
My intention in writing this article was to provoke thinking about this.
But the idea is to provoke and persuade, not to soothe.
