evoke, v.
(iːˈvəʊk)
[ad. Fr. évoquer, ad. L. ēvoc-āre, f. ē- out + vocāre to call.]
1. trans. To call forth; esp. to summon up (spirits, etc.) by the use of magic charms.
| 1623–6 Cockeram, Euoke, to call forth. 1774 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry xxxiii. (1840) II. 509 The only..use of this character is..to evoke the Devil, and summon the court. Ibid. lxi. (1840) III. 399 To evoke the Queen of the Fairies in the solitude of a gloomy grove. 1812 Landor Ct. Julian Wks. 1846 II. 503 If only warlike spirits were evoked By the war-demon. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6) II. ii. 15 It is a monster thus evoked that we see stalking abroad. |
2. transf. and fig. a. In various associations, with more or less obvious allusion to magical operations.
| 1749 Warburton Lett. (1809) 13, I had no sooner evoked the name of Shakespear from the..former editions than a crew of strange devils..come chattering..round about me. 1757 Hurd On Marks of Imitation, Johnson evokes Fancy out of her cave of cloud. 1844 Emerson Lect. Yng. Amer. Wks. (Bohn) II. 293 Railroad iron is a magician's rod..to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water. 1868 Stanley Westm. Ab. i. 21 On his way he evoked with his staff the two springs of the Island. |
b. To call (a feeling, faculty, manifestation, etc.) into being or activity. Also, To call up (a memory) from the past.
| 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 70 The ambition to create value evokes every kind of ability. 1866 Max Müller Chips (1880) III. vii. 183 He rather likes now and then to evoke a smile. 1877 Browning La Saisiaz (1878) 82 Be this, sad yet sweet, the sole Memory evoked from slumber! 1879 Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. i. §16. 18 Unable to evoke a respondent movement from the exhausted Muscles. |
3. To summon (a cause) from an inferior to a superior tribunal (cf. avoke).
| 1752 Carte Hist. Eng. III. 474 marg., The conference at York evoked to London. 1839 Keightley Hist. Eng. II. 10 She protested against the competency of the court, as the cause had been evoked to Rome by the Pope. 1851 Hussey Papal Power i. 5 Authority to evoke causes to Rome. |
Hence eˈvoked ppl. a.; eˈvoker, one who or that which evokes; eˈvoking vbl. n., the action of the vb. evoke.
| 1849 S. R. Maitland Illustr. Mesmerism i. 49 Where do we read about magic circles, and evoked fiends, black cats, etc.? 1845 Mozley Ess. (1878) I. 121 An evoker of all his cleverness and ready wit. 1853 De Quincey Autobiog. Sk. Wks. I. 27 The playfulness of the scene is the very evoker of the solemn remembrances that lie hidden below. 1848 W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc's Hist. Ten. Y. II. 189 The evoking of this famous and terrible name provoked scandal. |