Goaded Definition & Meaning

Choose the Right Synonym for goad

Noun

motive, impulse, incentive, inducement, spur, goad mean a stimulus to action. motive implies an emotion or desire operating on the will and causing it to act. a motive for the crime impulse suggests a driving power arising from personal temperament or constitution. buying on impulse incentive applies to an external influence (such as an expected reward) inciting to action. a bonus was offered as an incentive inducement suggests a motive prompted by the deliberate enticements or allurements of another. offered a watch as an inducement to subscribe spur applies to a motive that stimulates the faculties or increases energy or ardor. fear was a spur to action goad suggests a motive that keeps one going against one's will or desire. thought insecurity a goad to worker efficiency

Examples of goad in a Sentence

Verb The threat of legal action should goad them into complying. tried to goad me into auditioning for the play Noun The threat of legal action is a powerful goad to companies that have ignored the regulations. the threat of skin cancer—not to mention the prospect of wrinkles—should be sufficient goad for using sunscreen

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb Some countries have no desire to goad the Russian bear. — New York Times, 19 Apr. 2022 Although more than 100,000 Russian troops are massed on Ukraine’s border, Putin faulted the West for causing tensions, depicting a deliberate attempt to goad Moscow into making a military move. — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 1 Feb. 2022 Sigal and his colleagues have found that Omicron infections in unvaccinated people don’t goad the immune system into churning out antibodies that recognize other variants very well. — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 1 Feb. 2022 Third shots can also goad the immune system into broadening its range of coronavirus-fighting tools, so that kids end up ready to duel even antibody-dodging variants such as Omicron. — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 21 Jan. 2022 Some creators don’t necessarily try to goad performers into saying outrageous things about camera, but center their entire channels around their interactions with performers, such as flirting with Disney princesses. — Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 12 Jan. 2022 But that doesn’t square with the serious decisions that came before this: decarceration, prioritization for the vaccines, and expenditure of resources to goad prisoners to queue up for the vaccine. — Chandra Bozelko, STAT, 20 Nov. 2021 Internalizing that fact is an important task, not least because doing so might goad us to develop a nimbleness in our response to disasters and resilience in our supply chains once the worst discrete weather events have receded. — Damon Linker, The Week, 18 Nov. 2021 Later in the episode, Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) tries to goad Greg into tussling in a last-ditch attempt to overpower somebody, anybody, at Waystar. — Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 8 Nov. 2021 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Thus began Johns’s career-long fascination with signs and symbols — not as a subject for representation, but as a goad to pure painting. — Washington Post, 29 Sep. 2021 Politics now in Illinois is about herding the people, using their emotions as the shepherd’s goad. — John Kass, chicagotribune.com, 20 Feb. 2021 It’s not solely Republicans who find themselves on the wrong end of Trump’s lash and goad. — Varad Mehta, Washington Examiner, 17 Dec. 2020 Morton is applying those lessons to winning local district councils, which have the ability to declare local climate emergencies that serve as a goad to the federal government. — Scott Wilson, Washington Post, 18 Jan. 2020 The book also served, throughout, as a worthwhile goad, spurring me to test its assertions against my own uneasy re-experience — as both avid user and resistant consumer of social photography. — Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, 10 Aug. 2019 The only difference was that, during Marcus’s birth, the amplified heartbeat was with us through the entire labor, a goad, and solace. — Jon Michaud, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2019 Stories like those emanating from San Francisco General can be powerful goads to federal lawmakers. — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 2 Aug. 2019 Their fairly gentle demeanor means handlers can manage them with verbal commands and the judicious use of goad sticks. — Denise Coffey, courant.com, 17 June 2019 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'goad.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.