v. [ad. Fr. évoquer, ad. L. ēvoc-āre, f. ē- out + vocāre to call.]
1. trans. To call forth; esp. to summon up (spirits, etc.) by the use of magic charms.
1623–6. Cockeram, Euoke, to call forth.
1774. T. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, xxxiii. (1840), II. 509. The only … use of this character is … to evoke the Devil, and summon the court. Ibid., lxi. (1840), III. 399. To evoke the Queen of the Fairies in the solitude of a gloomy grove.
1812. Landor, Ct. Julian, Wks. 1846, II. 503. If only warlike spirits were evoked By the war-demon, I would not complain.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6), II. ii. 15. It is a monster thus evoked that we see stalking abroad.
2. transf. and fig. a. In various associations, with more or less obvious allusion to magical operations.
1749. Warburton, Lett. (1809), 13. I had no sooner evoked the name of Shakespear from the … former editions than a crew of strange devils … come chattering … round about me.
1757. Hurd, On Marks of Imitation. Johnson evokes Fancy out of her cave of cloud.
1844. Emerson, Lect. Yng. Amer., Wks. (Bohn), II. 293. Railroad iron is a magician’s rod … to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water.
1868. Stanley, Westm. Ab. (ed. 2), i. 21. On his way he evoked with his staff the two springs of the island.
b. To call (a feeling, faculty, manifestation, etc.) into being or activity. Also, To call up (a memory) from the past.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Wealth, Wks. (Bohn), II. 70. The ambition to create value evokes every kind of ability.
1866. Max Müller, Chips (1880), III. vii. 183. He rather likes now and then to evoke a smile.
1877. Browning, La Saisiaz (1878), 82. Be this, sad yet sweet, the sole Memory evoked from slumber!
1879. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. i. § 16. 18. Unable to evoke a respondent movement from the exhausted Muscles.
3. To summon (a cause) from an inferior to a superior tribunal (cf. AVOKE).
1752. Carte, Hist. Eng., III. 474, marg. The conference at York evoked to London.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., II. 10. She protested against the competency of the court, as the cause had been evoked to Rome by the pope.
1851. Hussey, Papal Power, i. 5. Authority to evoke causes to Rome.
Hence Evoked ppl. a.; Evoker, one who or that which evokes; Evoking vbl. sb., the action of the vb. EVOKE.
1849. S. R. Maitland, Illustr. Mesmerism, I. 49. Where do we read about magic circles, and evoked fiends, black cats, etc.?
1845. Mozley, Ess. (1878), I. 121. An evoker of all his cleverness and ready wit.
1853. De Quincey, Autobiog. Sk., Wks. I. 27. The playfulness of the scene is the very evoker of the solemn remembrances that lie hidden below.
1848. W. K. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., II. 182. The evoking of this famous and terrible name provoked scandal.
