Provocative maintenance
[Common ironic mutation of “preventive maintenance”] Actions performed upon a machine at regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in a usable state. So called because it is all too often performed by a field servoid who doesn’t know what he is doing; such “maintenance” often *induces* problems, or otherwise results in the machine’s remaining in an *un*usable state for an indeterminate amount of time. See also scratch monkey.
[Jargon File]
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- Provoke
verb (used with object), provoked, provoking. 1. to anger, enrage, exasperate, or vex. 2. to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or activity): The mishap provoked a hearty laugh. 3. to incite or stimulate (a person, animal, etc.) to action. 4. to give rise to, induce, or bring about: What could have provoked […]
- Provoked
verb (used with object), provoked, provoking. 1. to anger, enrage, exasperate, or vex. 2. to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or activity): The mishap provoked a hearty laugh. 3. to incite or stimulate (a person, animal, etc.) to action. 4. to give rise to, induce, or bring about: What could have provoked […]
- Provoker
verb (used with object), provoked, provoking. 1. to anger, enrage, exasperate, or vex. 2. to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or activity): The mishap provoked a hearty laugh. 3. to incite or stimulate (a person, animal, etc.) to action. 4. to give rise to, induce, or bring about: What could have provoked […]
- Provoking
adjective 1. serving to provoke; causing annoyance. verb (used with object), provoked, provoking. 1. to anger, enrage, exasperate, or vex. 2. to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or activity): The mishap provoked a hearty laugh. 3. to incite or stimulate (a person, animal, etc.) to action. 4. to give rise to, induce, […]
- Provolone
noun 1. a mellow light-colored, Italian cheese, usually smoked after drying. noun 1. a mellow, pale yellow, soft, and sometimes smoked cheese, made of cows’ milk: usually moulded in the shape of a pear