egg on
See also: Eggon
English
Etymology
- From Middle English eggen (“to incite; urge on; instigate”), from Old Norse eggja (“to incite”), from egg (“edge”). More at edge.
- A variant of the archaic "edge on."
This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
egg on (third-person singular simple present eggs on, present participle egging on, simple past and past participle egged on)
- (transitive, idiomatic) To encourage or coax a person to do something, especially something foolhardy or reckless.
- 1892, Lesslie Hall (translator), chapter 35, in Beowulf:
- Then I heard that at morning one brother the other / With edges of irons egged on to murder,
- 1908, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 25, in In the South Seas:
- He resented the idea of interference from those who had […] egged him on to a new peril.
- 1912, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 8, in The Adventures of Sally:
- She had deliberately egged him on to wreck his prospects.
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Synonyms
- provoke
Translations
provoke
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Anagrams
- gonge