invoke, v.
(ɪnˈvəʊk)
Also 5 invoque, 6 envoke, 7 invoak.
[a. F. invoque-r (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. invocāre to call upon, esp. as a witness or for aid; to implore; to call by name, f. in- (in-2) + vocāre to call.]
1. trans. To call on (God, a deity, etc.) in prayer or as a witness; to appeal to for aid or protection; to summon or invite in prayer.
| 1490 Caxton Eneydos xxiv. 88 She inuoqued and called thre tymes by hidous wordes thre hundred goddes infernall. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. cxix. T, Since I have envoked thee Lett me Lord thy succour see. a 1633 Austin Medit. (1635) 256 As wee must not Invoke them [angels], so much lesse must we adore or worship them. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 145 Ye Swains, invoke the Pow'rs who rule the Sky, For a moist Summer, and a Winter dry. 1777 Watson Philip II (1839) 117 In witness of this our league, we invoke the holy name of the living God. 1885 Athenæum 21 Mar. 369/3 Apollo, then, is invoked in this passage as an avenging victor. |
b. To appeal to, in confirmation of something.
| 1851 Gladstone Glean. (1879) VI. xxix. 19, I cannot here do better than invoke the authority of Hooker. |
2. To summon (a spirit) by charms or incantation; to conjure; also fig. (Cf. conjure 9.)
| 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. iii. ii, Invoking all the spirits of the graves To tell me. 1838 Lytton Leila i. ii, I can invoke and conjure up those whose eyes are more piercing, whose natures are more gifted. 1848 ― Harold viii. iv, Thou shalt stand by my side while I invoke the phantom. 1862 Hook Lives Abps. II. ii. 132 Thus was the science of architecture invoked. |
b. To utter (a sacred name) in invocation.
| 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 262 His Name being invoked when any Commendable or Famous Action is performed; saying Shaw Abas, or Shabas, as we are wont to say, Well done. a 1704 T. Brown Sat. Quack Wks. 1730 I. 65 Wrinkled witches, when they truck with hell, Invoke thy name, and use it for a spell. |
3. To call upon, or call to (a person) to come or to do something.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 762 Ev'n then his trembling Tongue invok'd his Bride; With his last Voice, Eurydice, he cry'd. 1878 Masque Poets 213 All things In youth and loveliness to love invoke us. |
4. To call for (a thing) with earnest entreaty; to make supplication for, to implore.
| 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 156 Upon condition that my Inviter would be my protection from large drinking, which I was many times forced to invoke. 1773 H. More Search Happ. ii. 136 Then let us, Power Supreme! thy will adore, Invoke thy mercies, and proclaim thy power. 1832 W. Irving Alhambra I. 58 The spirits..who nightly haunt the scene of their suffering, and invoke the vengeance of Heaven on their destroyer. 1865 Grote Plato I. iii. 129 His advice was respectfully invoked. |
5. Admiralty Prize Procedure. To call in evidence from a parallel case, or from the papers of a sister ship of the same owners, etc.
| 1802 Sir C. Robinson Admiralty Rep. IV. 167 Laurence..objected that it was not admissible, according to the rules of evidence, to invoke depositions from other cases. 1817 Wheaton Rep. (U.S. Supreme Crt.) II. App. Note i. 23 Papers found on board another captured ship may be invoked into the cause..but the authenticity of papers thus invoked must be verified by affidavit. 1828 Webster s.v., To order, to call judicially; as to invoke depositions or evidence into a court. |
Hence inˈvoked ppl. a.; inˈvoking vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1611 Florio, Inuocatione, an inuoking or calling vpon for aide. 1631 Milton Epit. Marchioness Winchester 19 The god that sits at marriage-feast; He at their invoking came. 1801 Ranken Hist. France I. i. iii. 85 Afraid..of the vengeance of these invoked tutelary saints. 1834 J. H. Newman in Lyra Apost., Rest (1849) 63 We may not stir the heaven of their repose By rude invoking voice. |
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[1.] [b.] For def. read: To appeal to, cite, or posit in support of a course of action, explanation, etc. (Later examples.)
| 1879 [see transom n. 1 a]. 1927 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law XXI. 509 The principle of rebus sic stantibus was invoked by Austria–Hungary in 1908 as a justification..for the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake 572 He is considered to have committed, invoking droit d'oreiller, simple infidelities with Felicia. 1946 [see non-behavioural s.v. non- 3]. 1974 A. Davis Autobiogr. v. 331 The argument he had invoked when he rejected our bail motion no longer held water. 1987 J. Berman Talking Cure iv. 91 Far from isolating literature from psychology, Eliot invokes a clinical authority to confirm his intuition. |
c. To call for (a law, procedure, etc.) to be applied or observed. orig. U.S.
| 1869 U.S. Reports LXXVI. 278 It follows that the seventh amendment could not be invoked in a State court to prohibit it from re-examining..facts that had been tried by a jury in the court below. 1888 [see slack a. 1 a]. 1934 [see take v. 82 f]. 1965 A. J. P. Taylor Eng. Hist. 1914–1945 vii. 250 The clause against sympathetic and political strikes was never invoked during its nineteen years of existence. 1977 K. M. E. Murray Caught in Web of Words (1979) viii. 159 There was a dismissal clause to be invoked if the Editor should not proceed as fast as the Delegates considered reasonable. 1983 B. T. Bradford Voice of Heart xi. 103 The year would be up at the end of March and so she could invoke the clause and leave the production to do the film. |
d. Computing. To cause (a procedure, subroutine, etc.) to be carried out; = *call v. 4 o.
| 1961 Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery IV. 55/1 The second phase, which invokes diagram to output the assembly language program. 1973 C. W. Gear Introd. Computer Sci. v. 194 A function is a complete piece of program known as a procedure. When it is used we say that it has been called or invoked. 1979 Sci. Amer. Dec. 86/2 The problem can be solved by inserting into the program still another extra variable, DISC.., and checking to see whether DISC is less than zero before invoking the square-root function. 1985 Which Computer? Dec. 53/3 The GD command invokes the graphics drawing language (GDL) for the Canon printer. |