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pacify

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Middle French pacifier, from Latin pāx (“peace”) + faciō (“to do, make”). Cognate with pay and peacify.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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pacify (third-person singular simple present pacifies, present participle pacifying, simple past and past participle pacified)

  1. (transitive) To bring peace to (a place or situation), by ending (or suppressing) war, fighting, violence, anger or agitation.
    Near-synonyms: peacify, repacify, allay, locarnize
    Their orders were to pacify the province by destroying resistance.
  2. (transitive, figurative) To mollify, placate or soothe (someone or something).
    • 1920, Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order, volume 1 (hardcover), London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., page 11:
      As to your frequent remarks in your letters about pacifying my friend, I have done everything I could and tried every expedient; but he is inveterate against you to a surprising degree, on what suspicions, though I think you have been told, you shall yet learn from me when you come.
    • 1977, Maze, “While I'm Alone”, in Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly:
      Tell me that you'll call me / Just as soon as you get home / To pacify my heart while I'm alone / I don't like being alone
  3. (transitive, figurative) To appease (someone).
    Synonyms: placate; see others there

Derived terms

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Translations

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