Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To overcome the distrust or animosity of; appease. synonym: pacify.
  • intransitive verb To regain or try to regain (friendship or goodwill) by pleasant behavior.
  • intransitive verb To make or attempt to make compatible; reconcile.
  • intransitive verb To gain or try to gain someone's friendship or goodwill.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To overcome the distrust or hostility of, by soothing and pacifying means; induce friendly and kindly feelings in; pacify; placate; soothe; win over.
  • To induce, draw, or secure by something adapted to attract regard or favor; win; gain; engage.
  • Synonyms To win over, propitiate, appease. See reconcile.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To win ower; to gain from a state of hostility; to gain the good will or favor of; to make friendly; to mollify; to propitiate; to appease.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Make calm and content; placate.
  • verb Mediate in a dispute.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb come to terms
  • verb cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of
  • verb make (one thing) compatible with (another)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin conciliāre, conciliāt-, from concilium, meeting; see kelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin conciliare 'combine, gain', from concilium 'assembly'.

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