1
as in poking
to urge or push forward with or as if with a pointed object
kept prodding the sheep with a staff to move along faster
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in urging
to try to persuade (someone) through earnest appeals to follow a course of action
a public outcry eventually prodded the politicians into action
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of prodding
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
Wissa was an important signing, someone to take the pressure off Woltemade while simultaneously prodding him.
—George Caulkin, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2025
Lila Shroff, The Atlantic, 22 Sep. 2025
Wissa was an important signing, someone to take the pressure off Woltemade while simultaneously prodding him.
—George Caulkin, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prodding
Verb
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Wandering among the half naked nymphs and leering wolves and buff mermen poking their lovely wet heads out of glassy forest pools, their eyes dark with wanting to drag her down to oblivion.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
24 Sep. 2025
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While some are panicking about the potential event, others are poking fun at the prediction.—
Cailey Gleeson,
jsonline.com,
23 Sep. 2025
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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Tubers that are dug for winter storage can be separated into starts at the time of digging.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
3 Oct. 2025
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Others are digging the W’s faster pace and perimeter evolution.—
Steven Louis Goldstein,
New York Times,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
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That means encouraging teams to slow down, check sender info, confirm requests through other channels and report anything that feels off.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
27 Sep. 2025
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By encouraging tourists to visit Puerto Rico’s lauded heritage sites, Bad Bunny is uplifting narratives about the community and their power that recontextualize the island as a place for visitors from across the globe to celebrate.—
Cat Sposato,
Travel + Leisure,
27 Sep. 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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During the ensuing fight near the trail, the man gained control of Heskett’s pocketknife, stabbing him with it, Zajac was told – an account that would unravel by day’s end.—
Andi Babineau,
CNN Money,
29 Sep. 2025
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In the wake of the stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte, North Carolina, light rail train, the state legislature introduced a bill to crack down on bail for violent offenders, drawing praise from one crime expert.—
Peter D'Abrosca,
FOXNews.com,
26 Sep. 2025
Verb
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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
Cite this Entry
“Prodding.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prodding. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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