agent provocateur

Example Sentences

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Recent Examples of agent provocateur But De Niro’s attempt at playing agent provocateur stumbled badly: His decision to stand outside the New York Trump trial cost the actor his credibility. Armond White, National Review, 5 June 2024 Members of the crowd accused Epps of being an agent provocateur, which later helped spur the conspiracy theories about him. Justin Jouvenal, Washington Post, 9 Jan. 2024 Jester, troubadour, agent provocateur, Serge Gainsbourg rhymed his way through life in a fog of Gitanes smoke, making music of every genre. Roger Cohen, New York Times, 25 Sep. 2023 The Globoplay Original, produced by the company’s journalism arm, examines the lives of those adjacent to the faction through interviews with the contingents’ defenders, defectors, sociologists and an agent provocateur that develops carefully-orchestrated chaos. Holly Jones, Variety, 20 Mar. 2023 Anyone who maligns the sultan is immediately thought to be an agent provocateur working for the sultan, and probably is. Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 30 Sep. 2022 The last dispatch from the alien/agent provocateur known as Greg Tate beamed out from perhaps his most inconspicuous dwelling. Tirhakah Love, Vulture, 14 Dec. 2021 At the same time, agents provocateurs played a significant role in the turbulence. Adam Hochschild, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2019 It is now known who that agent provocateur was that the FBI used and John Brennan used and James Clapper. Fox News, 17 May 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for agent provocateur
Noun
  • Set in a crumbling Japanese metropolis rebuilt after a devastating explosion, Akira follows teenage rebels Kaneda and Tetsuo as secret government experiments unleash psychic forces capable of unmaking the world.
    Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 21 May 2025
  • In response, the commanders decide to meet in Washington D.C., and Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) finally chooses a side once and for all and gives up their plan to June (Elisabeth Moss) and the fellow rebels.
    EW.com, EW.com, 20 May 2025
Noun
  • As threats from insurgents faded, crackdowns by an authoritarian government surged.
    Mitra Taj, New York Times, 17 May 2025
  • As a result, the new international legal architecture curbed starvation tactics in interstate wars and during occupations but stopped short of fully criminalizing the weapon, particularly when used by poorer states against insurgent groups in civil wars.
    Boyd van Dijk, Foreign Affairs, 30 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • In a first-person essay, influencer Erica Reitman opens up to PEOPLE about how she's learned to navigate the annual holiday after the loss of her mom 1 Comments Erica Reitman is a branding strategist, marketing troublemaker and reluctant grief content creator.
    Erica Reitman, People.com, 10 May 2025
  • Listen to this article A trio of troublemakers sped through Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in a white car shooting pellet guns and gel guns at people dressed in traditional Hasidic Jewish garb, hitting at least seven persons over a two-day possible hate crime spree, a police source said.
    Nicholas Williams, New York Daily News, 19 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • The film centers on the young Syrian revolutionaries who rebel against the regime of then-Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s and create an secret underground library with thousands of books buried under the ruins.
    Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 14 May 2025
  • There, Neto and Rafael — revolutionaries and lovers — are separated by the Salvadoran conflict.
    Chris Vognar, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2025
Noun
  • This is the fourth mission for the booster supporting today's Starlink launch.
    Josh Dinner, Space.com, 14 May 2025
  • Last month, SpaceX test-fired the rocket's massive booster stage, known as Super Heavy.
    ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 13 May 2025
Noun
  • Notably, the promoter recently discontinued its popular Lawn Pass program, through which music fans paid a flat fee for a lawn ticket to every summer concert at participating amphitheaters.
    Taylor Mims, Billboard, 14 May 2025
  • The criminal proceeding affects all four band members, along with the group’s manager and concert promoter, and accuses them of glorifying the criminal activities of cartels.
    Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 13 May 2025
Noun
  • Image Image Throughout, Bob, as his American friends still call him, or Roberto, as his Spanish and Italian ones do, has remained consistently low-key, a gray man in a world of outsized personalities cloaked in sumptuous scarlet cassocks, an earnest admin of the apostles.
    Mitra Taj, New York Times, 17 May 2025
  • Like those of other popes, Francis' ring has an image of St. Peter the apostle and Francis' own name.
    George Petras, USA Today, 23 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Biking advocates say that the draconian crackdown was done without any public notice and that pedal bike riders are being swept up in this unprecedented dragnet.
    Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 16 May 2025
  • Immigrant advocates including the American Civil Liberties Union challenged these deportations, arguing that the Trump administration has offered little evidence that the Venezuelans are gang members, and that the men have a right to contest those allegations in court.
    Joel Rose, NPR, 16 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Agent provocateur.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/agent%20provocateur. Accessed 29 May. 2025.

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