1
as in urging
to try to persuade (someone) through earnest appeals to follow a course of action
tried to goad me into auditioning for the play
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in poking
to urge or push forward with or as if with a pointed object
goading the horse forward into the stall
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of goading
Anthropic’s Claude wanted to know whether my headache was tension-related, due to sinus pressure, or something else entirely—hardly a goading question.
—
Lila Shroff, The Atlantic, 22 Sep. 2025
Lila Shroff, The Atlantic, 22 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for goading
Verb
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Rachel Goldberg-Polin emerged as a moral voice, urging an end to the war and healing for Israel's internal divisions.—
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena,
USA Today,
4 Oct. 2025
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The city of Evanston, an urban suburb of Chicago, issued a statement warning its residents of impending raids by ICE agents and urging them to report sightings of law enforcement.—
Rebecca Schneid,
Time,
4 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The first meetup drew dozens of participants poking at pudding cups together.—
Jordan Greene,
PEOPLE,
3 Oct. 2025
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The underground pop of the 2010s used to get so excited about being online, using shrinky-dink artifice to delight in poking fun at a culture that could feel shallow and strange but also organic and endlessly renewable.—
Anna Gaca,
Pitchfork,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Venus is wrapping up in Virgo in your adventure sector, encouraging you to expand through learning, travel, or fresh perspectives.—
Dossé-Via Trenou,
Refinery29,
5 Oct. 2025
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Croft urged schools to formally teach digital literacy and parents to reinforce it at home by encouraging keyboard use and balanced screen time.—
Lydia Patrick,
MSNBC Newsweek,
3 Oct. 2025
Verb
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In the two decades that followed, nationalization was embraced by former colonies across Asia and Latin America, spurring the United States and wealthy European nations to start prioritizing domestic resource extraction.—
Scott W. Stern,
The Atlantic,
2 Oct. 2025
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Glutamate triggers a bunch of positive ions to flood into a neuron, increasing its internal voltage and spurring it to fire an action potential, a strong burst of electricity that travels down a nerve fiber and makes the neuron release its own set of molecules to communicate with others, and so on.—
Yasemin Saplakoglu,
Quanta Magazine,
29 Sep. 2025
Verb
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As the new month begins on October 1st, Juno enters Sagittarius and lights up your communication and curiosity sector, nudging you to speak from your gut instead of your script.—
Dossé-Via Trenou,
Refinery29,
29 Sep. 2025
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Douthat talks to a wide range of guests, nudging them toward unexpectedly cosmic discussions of good and evil and the future of humanity.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
26 Sep. 2025
Verb
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In some cases, like my request for headache tips, bots end their messages with prodding follow-up questions.—
Lila Shroff,
The Atlantic,
22 Sep. 2025
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Wissa was an important signing, someone to take the pressure off Woltemade while simultaneously prodding him.—
George Caulkin,
New York Times,
11 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The brutal stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte light rail directed attention to his crime policies, as many Republicans squarely blamed Cooper.—
Brady Knox,
The Washington Examiner,
6 Oct. 2025
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As of Monday, suspects have been arrested in the Friday shooting deaths of 18-year-old Jenny Rosales and 28-year-old Chandrashekar Pole, and a suspect has been questioned about the stabbing death of 15-year-old Jacob De La Rosa.—
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
6 Oct. 2025
Verb
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While they were lined up, members put on boxing gloves and took turns punching the pledges four times in the chest, according to the petition.—
Jennifer Rodriguez,
Miami Herald,
30 Sep. 2025
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Jahmai Jones’ two-run single in the top of the fifth proved the difference, punching Detroit’s ticket to the playoffs and ensuring the Tigers would go into Game 162 with a chance to claw back the AL Central title from the insurgent Cleveland Guardians on the final day of the regular season.—
Mac Cerullo,
Boston Herald,
27 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Goading.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/goading. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.
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