appease
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English apesen, from Old French apeser (“to pacify, bring to peace”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /əˈpiːz/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -iːz
Verb
[edit]appease (third-person singular simple present appeases, present participle appeasing, simple past and past participle appeased)
- To make quiet; to calm; to reduce (something) to a state of peace; to dispel (anger, hatred, etc.).
- 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:
- 'First, a little refreshment to reward my exertions. You may as well be quiet. It is not the first time, or the second, that your veins have appeased my thirst!'
- To make conciliatory offerings or concessions to (someone) in an attempt to dispel their anger, aggression, etc.; to adapt to the demands of; to come to terms with.
- Synonyms: mollify, placate, propitiate
- They appeased the angry gods with burnt offerings.
- 2017 October 9, Karl Mathiesen, quoting Tony Abbott, “Tony Abbott says climate change is 'probably doing good'”, in The Guardian[1], →ISSN:
- Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has suggested climate change is “probably doing good” in a speech in London in which he likened policies to combat it to “primitive people once killing goats to appease the volcano gods” .
- 2024 October 30, Philip Haigh, “Poor planning and lack of clarity damages rail projects”, in RAIL, number 1021, page 50:
- It's been slowly hacked back, amid fears of escalating costs, by politicians who have also increased those costs by adding expensive structures such as tunnels to appease opponents.
Antonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
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to make conciliatory offerings or concessions to in an attempt to dispel anger, aggression; to adapt to the demands of — see also mollify, pacify, placate, propitiate, satisfy
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Further reading
[edit]- “appease”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “appease”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
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- Rhymes:English/iːz
- Rhymes:English/iːz/2 syllables
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