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invoke

used in a sentence
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Definition to call upon
The exact meaning of invoke can depend upon its context. For example:
  • "invoking God's help"; or "invoking the spirit of the dead" — to call upon a great or magical power
  • "I invoke the First Amendment"; or "I invoke the words of Thomas Jefferson" — to cite or call upon for validation
  • "She invoked his sympathy and family memories." — to call upon someone's feelings or memories
  • "She invoked his assistance." — to call earnestly for
  • "The program invokes the subroutine" — to call up a computer program
  • Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other.
    Abraham Lincoln (Second Inaugural Address)
  • She invoked the Fifth Amendment as reason not to answer.
    • invoked = cited or called upon for validation
  • She invoked the National Emergency Act to support her actions.
  • He invoked Section 24 of the statute (law).
  • He used all his money for a ticket, boarded the train as he had done many times, coolly chatted with the conductor, to whom Dill was a familiar sight, but he had not the nerve to invoke the rule on small children traveling a distance alone if you've lost your money the conductor will lend you enough for dinner and your father will pay him back at the end of the line.
    Harper Lee  --  To Kill a Mockingbird
    • invoke = call upon
  • Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.
    Abraham Lincoln  --  Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
    • invokes = calls upon
  • Invoke God in times of trouble
  • I mean to teach them in these parts that law is law, and that there is a man here who does not fear to invoke it.
    Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan  --  The Hound of the Baskervilles
  • I want to invoke every kind of blessing on them, grave and gay, great and small.
    Forster, E. M.  --  A Room With A View
  • They curse me, they invoke all kinds of evil on my head
    Hawthorne, Nathaniel  --  Grandfather's Chair
  • I invoke your sympathy.
    Collins, Wilkie  --  The Woman in White
  • What could I do but invoke a silent blessing on Miss Mills's head, and store Miss Mills's address in the securest corner of my memory
    Dickens, Charles  --  David Copperfield
  • Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors.
    Kennedy, John F.  --  John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address
  • I have too much reverence in me to invoke the name of a God of whom clever men have robbed me a long time ago.
    Conrad, Joseph  --  The Arrow of Gold
  • ...prayers where two or three are gathered together invoke the mercy of heaven.
    Dumas, Alexandre  --  The Count of Monte Cristo
  • If you intend to reform, invoke God's blessing, His mercy, and His aid; not His curse.
    Bronte, Anne  --  The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  • He droned on insultingly, invoking Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Dale Carnegie, Spinoza, Thomas Edison, Sigmund Freud.
    William Styron  --  Sophie's Choice
  • About HER I won't speak; and I don't desire to think; but I earnestly wish she were invisible: her presence invokes only maddening sensations.
    Emily Bronte  --  Wuthering Heights
  • His very size invokes them all.
    Anthony Doerr  --  All the Light We Cannot See
  • I only invoked what you already knew.
    Paulo Coelho  --  The Alchemist

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