Collocations for provoke - verb

deliberately
inevitably (esp. BrE)
The suggestion inevitably provoked outrage from student leaders.

immediately
eventually, finally

try to
be likely to
The report is likely to provoke discussion of this issue.

be designed to, be intended to

into
She had been trying to provoke her sister into an argument.

to
Their laughter provoked him to anger.

easily provoked
He was sensitive and easily provoked.

Provoke is used with these nouns as the subject:
remark

Provoke is used with these nouns as the object:
alarm, allegation, anger, anxiety, argument, attack, backlash, brawl, clash, conflict, confrontation, controversy, crisis, criticism, debate, demonstration, disagreement, discontent, discussion, dispute, division, emotion, fight, furore, fury, hostility, incident, indignation, jealousy, laughter, outcry, outrage, quarrel, reaction, rebellion, resentment, resignation, response, retaliation, revolt, riot, storm, thought, unrest, uprising, uproar, violence, wrath