unprovoked

«unprovoked» in Mova's school dictionary: An unprovoked attack or action happens without any… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (unprovoked)

meaning for a pupil

An unprovoked attack or action happens without any reason, when the other person did nothing to cause it. tree →

sense in the lessons

In news, history and safety it describes violence or attacks that came out of nowhere. In school it can describe hitting or unkindness with no cause. Phrases: an unprovoked attack, completely unprovoked.

examples

• The dog's bite was unprovoked; the boy had not touched it. tree →
• Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was widely described as unprovoked. tree →
• The teacher said the push was unprovoked and unfair. tree →
• Shark attacks on people are rare, and unprovoked ones are rarer still. tree →
• It was an unprovoked insult. tree →
• The court heard it was an unprovoked assault. tree →

note

Made from un- + provoked (provoke = to cause someone to react, often angrily). Used mostly about attacks and insults.

In the corpora

• All sharks together make only about 70 unprovoked bites on people a year worldwide, reported.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «unprovoked» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.