agent provocateur
3
9.9
- noun
- /ˈeɪdʒənt prəˌvɒkəˈtɜr/
:
agente provocador
- Several groups suspect that the government used an agent provocateur to incite violence during the demonstration.
Examples
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I wonder how many radical statements in the 60s were the work of agent provocateurs working to discredit the peace movement to the American people?
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Police do not use agent provocateurs for nothing.
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While I am sure there are and were agents provocateur there, we have no reason to really think these people are them.
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Whether they were agents provocateurs is still to be determined, and it may never be.
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It's something agents provocateurs do first when they infiltrate a movement.
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Some have suggested these breakaway leaders may have been "agents provocateurs."
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Having been involved in marches, I feel safer knowing that others are trying to help weed out agents provocateurs.
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The number of government informants and agents provocateurs has grown exponentially since the 1970s, when the FBI claimed it shut down its counterintelligence operation.
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I'm thinking of the G20 meeting in Toronto: there were probably police posing as protesters (agents provocateurs) in order to infiltrate the peaceful demonstrators.
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The police deployed an agent provocateur to gather information about the protests.
Synonyms
53
5.8
A person who tricks others into a trap or danger
14
8.8
A person who on purpose causes trouble or makes others do wrong
1
8.4
A person who encourages others to do wrong or cause trouble
1
9.9
A person who gets someone to do something illegal, often by paying them
A person who causes political trouble by encouraging others to act against the government
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase directly composes 'agent' (a person who acts on behalf of others) with 'provocateur' (a person who provokes), so the basic meaning—an agent who deliberately provokes others—is transparently derivable from its parts. Although the term is a French loan and can carry the specialised nuance of covert or police-instigated provocation, the core sense of an instigating agent is predictable for learners who know both constituents.
Etymology
Agent provocateur comes from French and literally means an undercover agent who is a provocateur — someone paid to stir people up. Because such people were used to push groups into crimes so authorities could arrest them, the phrase now means 'a person who secretly encourages others to commit illegal acts'.