invoke

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To call on (a higher power) for assistance, support, or inspiration: "Stretching out her hands she had the air of a Greek woman who invoked a deity” ( Ford Madox Ford).
2. v. To appeal to or cite in support or justification.
3. v. To call for earnestly; solicit: invoked the help of a passing motorist.
4. v. To summon with incantations; conjure.
5. v. To resort to; use or apply: "Shamelessly, he invokes coincidence to achieve ironic effect” ( Newsweek).
6. v. Computer Science To activate or start (a program, for example).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To address in supplication; call on for protection or aid: as, to invoke the Supreme Being; to invoke the Muses.
2. To call for with earnest desire; make supplication or prayer for: as, to invoke God's mercy.
3. In law, to call for judicially: as, to invoke depositions or evidence. Synonyms and To implore, supplicate, adjure, solicit, beseech.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To call upon (a person, especially a god) for help, assistance or guidance.
2. v. transitive To appeal for validation to a (notably cited) authority.
3. v. transitive To conjure up with incantations.
4. v. transitive To bring about as an inevitable consequence.
5. v. transitive To solicit, petition for, appeal to a favorable attitude.
6. v. transitive, computing To cause (a program or subroutine) to execute.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To call on for aid or protection; to invite earnestly or solemnly; to summon; to address in prayer; to solicit or demand by invocation; to implore.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. request earnestly (something from somebody); ask for aid or protection
2. v. summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic
3. v. cite as an authority; resort to