[a. ON. eggja (Da. egge), = EDGE v.1]
1. trans. To incite, encourage, urge on; to provoke, tempt. Cf. EDGE v.1 Const. († til), to, unto (an action, enterprise, etc.). Obs. exc. as in 2.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 195. Alse þe deuel him to eggede.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 3. & eggeð þe to brudlac.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 278. Þe clergi of Scotland egged þer kyng Jon.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1130. He sent enuiously to þemperour and egged him swiþe bi a certayne day bataile to a bide.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pers. T., ¶ 894. Þei þat eggen or consenten to þe sinne bien partiners of þe sinne.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 136. Eggyn, or entycyn to doon well or yvele [P. eggen, or styre to gode or yll], incito, provoco.
1508. Barclay, Shyp of Folys 141 b. He shall haue frendes and felawys at honde, To egge him forwarde vnto vnhappynes.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. viii. 17. Thai foyne at vthir, and eggis to bargane.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 299/1. Especiallie being egged … by his brethren taking it to stomach.
a. 1591. H. Smith, Wks. (1866–7), I. 379. A man which sharpens his enemy with taunts, when he would egg him to fight.
1598. Grenewey, Tacitus’ Ann., I. xi. (1612), 21. The like occasion egged him to the like cruelty against Semp. Gracchus.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warrs, 93. Their suspicions egged them to cruelty.
2. with on. Const. to, etc.
1566. Drant, Horace Sat., I. v. D b. Ile egge them on to speake some thyng, whiche spoken may repent them.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, iv. (1596), 45. Sibils and Bacchants, and all those, who men thinke are egged on by some diuine inspiration.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, I. III. xxxii. That foregoing light That egs us on ’cording to what we have liven.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 328. Mathew Hazard [was] … a main Incendiary in the Rebellion, violently egged on by his wife.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., II. 257. Thus they egg Men on to old Age … till they learn too late.
1747. Carte, Hist. Eng., I. 21. Everything conspired to … egg them on to the undertaking.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. x. (1876), 207. Schemers and flatterers would egg him on.
