Meanings
present singular third person eggs on · participle present egging on · participle past egged on · past egged on
- idiomatictransitiveTo encourage or coax (a person) to do something, especially something foolhardy or reckless.
She had deliberately egged him on to wreck his prospects.
The Adventures of Sally
1921 October 8 – December 31, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VIII, in Mostly Sally [The Adventures of Sally], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 23 March 1923, →OCLC5 more examples
The Neatreſſe longing for the reſt, did egge him on to tell / How faire ſhe vvas, and vvho ſhe vvas.
1586, William Warner, “The Fourth Booke. Chapter XX.”, in Albions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island: […], London: […] George Robinson [and R. Ward] for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 86The affair made a great sensation, and the Darleyfords and their connections said bitter things of Mrs. Dallington, and talked much of rash youth and subtle woman of discreeter years, and passions shamefully inflamed, and purposes wickedly egged on.
1831, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter V, in The Young Duke. […], volume II (book III), London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 59He resented the idea of interference from those who had […] egged him on to a new peril.
1891 February–December, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter XXV, in In the South Seas […], New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1896, →OCLCThen I heard that at morning one brother the other / With edges of irons egged on to murder,
1892, chapter 35, in Lesslie Hall, transl., BeowulfOthers, including Sky’s former political editor Adam Boulton, have said the overall impression that Trump egged on the insurrection was fundamentally true. It is not unusual practice to edit together sections of a long speech to accurately summarise it.
2025 November 10, Kevin Rawlinson, “BBC resignations are result of internal ‘coup’, says former Sun editor”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 Nov 2025Synonyms: provoke
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo encourage or coax (a person) to do something, especially something foolhardy or reckless.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Norseeggja“to incite”
- Middle Englisheggen“to incite; urge on; instigate”
- Englishegg on
* 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."
More words from Middle English, Old Norse
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch provoceren, aanzetten tot
- provocerento encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- aanzetten totto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Finnish yllyttää
- yllyttääto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
French pousser à
- pousser àto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
German anstiften, aufstacheln
- anstiftento encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- aufstachelnto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- verleitento encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- anspitzento encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Greek παρακινώ
- παρακινώ (parakinó)to encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Icelandic eggja
- eggjato encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Māori whakataratara
- whakataratarato encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Persian تحریک کردن
- تحریک کردن (tahrik kardan)to encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Portuguese incitar, provocar
- incitarto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- provocarto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Russian подстрека́ть, подбива́ть
- подстрека́ть (podstrekátʹ)to encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- подбива́ть (podbivátʹ)to encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- подгова́ривать (podgovárivatʹ)to encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- нау́ськивать (naúsʹkivatʹ)to encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- подзу́живать (podzúživatʹ)to encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Spanish provocar, incitar
- provocarto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- incitarto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- concitarto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- instigarto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- suscitarto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
- guizgarto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Swedish egga
- eggato encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Turkish doldurmak
- doldurmakto encourage or coax (a person) to do something
Cite this entry
egg on. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/egg%20on
“egg on.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/egg%20on. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “egg on,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/egg%20on.
Source: egg on on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.