instigator
a person or thing that provokes or incites an action or course:Peaceful protesters outnumbered the violent instigators, and they kept the demonstration from becoming a riot.Plays to be performed at the festival focus on a theme of how youth can be the instigators of positive change.
Origin of instigator
1- Rarely in·sti·gant [in-sti-guhnt] /ˈɪn stɪ gənt/ .
Words Nearby instigator
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use instigator in a sentence
Trent Frederic, the instigator in the Capitals’ previous meetings with the Bruins, was also not in Thursday’s lineup because of a non-covid-related illness.
Capitals stumble out of the gate at home, can’t catch up to Bruins | Samantha Pell | April 9, 2021 | Washington PostThe final instigator, Bob Huggins once said, was all the losing.
Bob Huggins And West Virginia Have Reinvented Themselves … Again | Jake Lourim | March 2, 2021 | FiveThirtyEightThough no one has been charged with leading or directing the violence, investigators are working to find out whether certain individuals helped coordinate aspects of the attack, before and during the chaos, or were merely opportunistic instigators.
FBI probes possible connections between extremist groups at heart of Capitol violence | Devlin Barrett, Spencer Hsu | January 19, 2021 | Washington PostFor a while in the 1990s and early 2000s Michael worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, once again playing the role of scientific instigator and catalyst.
Five Scientists on the Heroes Who Changed Their Lives - Issue 93: Forerunners | Alan Lightman, Hope Jahren, Robert Sapolsky, | December 2, 2020 | NautilusThat aggressive behavior is apparently meant to disrupt the feeding insects and help the instigators score dinner, biologist and neuroscientist Alex Keene and colleagues report online November 19 in iScience.
Monarch caterpillars head-butt each other to fight for scarce food | Curtis Segarra | November 19, 2020 | Science News
There is something disingenuous about his playing both instigator and victim.
He was definitely an instigator [of the conversation], but I never felt intimidated.
He felt terrible, especially because it was his friend who had clearly been the instigator of the fight.
Soon afterwards Mathurin Lejeusne, the instigator of the sacrilege, was shot for some breach of military duty.
Belgium | George W. T. (George William Thomson) OmondHe saw at once that the man had been put up to act in this way by some one, and had little doubt that Brigson was the instigator.
Eric, or Little by Little | Frederic W. FarrarTo Gudrun, who wakes from sleep by his side, he points to Brynhild as the instigator of the crime, and dies.
The Nibelungenlied | UnknownIn fact, a night's reflection had convinced him that Clameran was the instigator of the two attempts to kill him.
File No. 113 | Emile GaboriauWould ye lay contrivances against the enlightened races of the earth, ye instigator of illegal crimes?
Sixes and Sevens | O. Henry
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