invoke
v.v. to mention a rule, law, or famous person to support your ideas or actions. You use this when you want to show that you have the authority to do something.
v. to appeal to or cite an authority, law, or principle as justification for an action or argument. In computing contexts, it refers to the act of calling a function or program into operation.
The lawyer decided to invoke a little-known law to help his client.
The president chose to invoke emergency powers to deal with the sudden national crisis.
During the debate, the speaker attempted to invoke the memory of the founding fathers to lend moral weight to his controversial proposal for constitutional reform.
From Middle English *invoken, envoken, borrowed from Old French envoquer, from Latin invocāre (“to call upon”), itself from in- + vocare (“to call”). Doublet of invocate.
The verb is transitive and requires a direct object, typically an abstract noun like a law, power, or name.
he invoked to the lawhe invoked the lawInvoke is a transitive verb and does not take the preposition 'to' before its object.