transitive verb

• 1Bring or recall to the conscious mind.

  ‘the sight of American asters evokes pleasant memories of childhood’

  More example sentences

  • ‘I really need to jog my memory to evoke images of the place.’
  • ‘Words are flashing in my mind, recollections of a time past, evoking specific feelings, recalling certain events, ones I do not wish to recollect.’
  • ‘What's to say there's not a homeless soul on a cold Dublin street who occasionally glances at a digital photo - using the memories evoked by the image to hold onto reality for yet another day.’
  • ‘The bird in hand image immediately evoked a memory I had from childhood.’
  • ‘Less easily quantified will be the emotions evoked by the memory of Persian Punch, who won 20 races in his career, the last of them on the Heath exactly a year ago.’
  • ‘On seeing the picture, it evoked pleasant memories of times spent at school in the past.’
  • ‘Clearly, these kinds of images of the miserable at play will evoke horror in the minds of every sane person.’
  • ‘As he discusses individual musicians, he illustrates how art intensifies human experiences and how music evokes powerful emotions and memories.’
  • ‘He smelled like strawberries, an innocent summery scent that flooded over and through me, evoking memories and images of a time not so long gone.’
  • ‘The narration, music and images combined to evoke fear and loathing in my impressionable pre-teen mind!’
  • ‘They are gruesome and evoke fear in the minds of their devotees; not love.’
  • ‘So these things have to be handled very, very delicately, and the way I'm trying to do that is to evoke a sense of memory as opposed to a sense of anger.’
  • ‘Peaches evoke memories and bring out the best of summertime activities.’
  • ‘To my mind it succeeds in evoking the excitement and interest inherent in mathematics but so often overshadowed by complexity and social fear.’
  • ‘A sudden change from a familiar system to another evokes doubt in the minds of the public.’
  • ‘It captures honest moments of weirdness, but it also manipulates images and music to evoke emotion.’
  • ‘This little temple is a true artistic achievement because it causes a shift in consciousness and evokes those feelings that we commonly call spiritual.’
  • ‘Exchanging stories and memories of the lost servicemen have evoked complex feelings, they said.’
  • ‘Memories of Ireland evoked a sadness, even bitterness, that cast a long shadow over the experience of family in the United States.’

  Synonyms

  bring to mind, call to mind, put one in mind of, call up, conjure up, summon up, summon, invoke, give rise to, bring forth, elicit, induce, kindle, stimulate, stir up, awaken, arouse, excite, raise, suggest

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1Elicit (a response)
     ‘the awkward kid who evoked giggles from his sisters’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Stress related factors might also influence interpretations of abuse, and evoke different responses in the victims of abuse.’
     • ‘In subjects with reduced androgen levels, stimuli that normally evoke a stress response are significantly less potent.’
     • ‘Stalking, once established as a social problem, evoked a rapid response from the criminal justice system.’
     • ‘The number of stimuli per 10-sec stimulation train that failed to evoke any muscular response was recorded.’
     • ‘Jewels, which have a definite presence in most of the counters, evoke a good response from the customers.’
     • ‘He thought that a circle of a particular colour touching a triangle at a specific juncture could evoke the same response in the viewer as the hand of God touching Adam in the Sistine chapel.’
     • ‘A second argument holds that a modified procedure might evoke negative responses in patients, leading to a decreased willingness to participate in future research.’
     • ‘Full of existential angst and loneliness, her paintings are able to evoke an empathetic response from the viewer.’
     • ‘A sociobiologist evokes much the same responses from his traditional behavioural science colleagues as would a Marxist in a business school.’
     • ‘Is it possible the movie set out to evoke a cinematic response in the spectator to mimic the characters' internal quandaries?’
     • ‘On the other hand, crying evokes physiological responses that increase the production of stress hormones.’
     • ‘The forecast evokes dismissive responses from auctioneering and estate agency spokespeople’
     • ‘The principal reason for this is that poetry evokes a pre-determined response.’
     • ‘The use of the word ‘pepper’ came into existence when it was observed that chili evoked a similar response to that of black pepper.’
     • ‘The book has evoked responses from people living with brain damage and members of the medical profession as well as those who've read it as a family story.’
     • ‘The doctors said that if any response was evoked it was among a few middle aged and elderly patients who were already highly motivated to modify their drinking behaviour.’
     • ‘The short man glared at him, displeased that he evoked no response.’
     • ‘Such heady language evoked a strong response among political refugees who were indeed sharpening the sword of vengeance on their own suffering.’
     • ‘The result evoked an angry response from demonstrators outside.’
     • ‘In particular, this perspective evoked a big response from young people.’
     Synonyms

     bring to mind, call to mind, put one in mind of, call up, conjure up, summon up, summon, invoke, give rise to, bring forth, elicit, induce, kindle, stimulate, stir up, awaken, arouse, excite, raise, suggest

     View synonyms

• 2Invoke (a spirit or deity)

  ‘Akasha is evoked in India when a house is being built to ensure its completion’

  More example sentences

  • ‘To evoke the Deities, raise the clasped hands to the center of the forehead.’
  • ‘Note that if you do choose to evoke the deity, you will enter a Gnostic trance and you may therefore forget what happened while you were under the trance.’
  • ‘Every year at Beltane the High Priestess evoked the goddess and all prayed to her for prosperous times in the coming harvest.’
  • ‘This skirt could represent the living space of the future married woman - her house, her neighborhood, and her fields - while also evoking the opposing spirits Lo'a and Netlaang.’
  • ‘It's going to the edge to spontaneously improvise and evoke the inner spirit.’
  • ‘Necromancy is only black magic, because it neither evokes spirits or heals.’
  • ‘After three days of life, a shaman evokes a soul to be reincarnated in the baby's body.’
  • ‘Often the spirit is evoked outside of the magicians protective circle into a defined and sealed area.’

  Synonyms

  bring to mind, call to mind, put one in mind of, call up, conjure up, summon up, summon, invoke, give rise to, bring forth, elicit, induce, kindle, stimulate, stir up, awaken, arouse, excite, raise, suggest

  View synonyms