Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To reestablish a close relationship between.
  • intransitive verb To settle or resolve.
  • intransitive verb To bring (oneself) to accept.
  • intransitive verb To make compatible, harmonious, or consistent.
  • intransitive verb To compare (one financial account) so that it is consistent or compatible with another.
  • intransitive verb To reestablish a close relationship, as in marriage.
  • intransitive verb To become compatible, harmonious, or consistent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To conciliate anew; restore to union and friendship after estrangement or variance; bring again to friendly or favorable feelings.
  • To adjust; pacify; settle: as, to reconcile differences or quarrels.
  • To bring to acquiescence, content, or quiet submission: with to.
  • To make consistent or congruous; bring to agreement or suitableness: often followed by with or to.
  • To rid of apparent discrepancies; harmonize: as, to reconcile the accounts of a fact given by two historians: often with with or to.
  • Eccles., to restore to sacred uses after desecration, or to unity with the church, by a prescribed ceremonial: as, to reconcile a church or a cemetery which has been profaned, as by murder; to reconcile a penitent (that is, to restore to communion one who has lapsed, as into heresy or schism).
  • To recover; regain.
  • In ship-building, to join (a piece of work) fair with another. The term refers particularly to the reversion of curves.
  • To become reconciled.

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

  • intransitive verb obsolete To become reconciled.
  • transitive verb To cause to be friendly again; to conciliate anew; to restore to friendship; to bring back to harmony; to cause to be no longer at variance.
  • transitive verb To bring to acquiescence, content, or quiet submission.
  • transitive verb To make consistent or congruous; to bring to agreement or suitableness; -- followed by with or to.
  • transitive verb To adjust; to settle.

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

  • verb To recreate friendly relationships.
  • verb To make things compatible or consistent.
  • verb To make the net difference in credits and debits of a financial account agree with the balance.

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

  • verb accept as inevitable
  • verb bring into consonance or accord
  • verb come to terms
  • verb make (one thing) compatible with (another)

Etymologies

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

[Middle English reconcilen, from Old French reconcilier, from Latin reconciliāre : re-, re- + conciliāre, to conciliate; see conciliate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin reconciliō.

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Examples

  • How can Palin reconcile giving money to someone who would want HER to get out of politics and go be a good little stay at home wife for Todd?

    Palin's PAC steps up contributions to GOP candidates 2009

  • The most difficult thing for me to reconcile is the statement on your masthead proclaiming your paper free of influence from the left or the right.

    New kid on the block David 2005

  • How, in short, reconcile what the progress already accomplished has had the effect of rendering irreconcilable?

    System of Economical Contradictions: or, the Philosophy of Misery 1888

  • In dismissing the idea of a "truth and reconciliation commission," Obama also recognizes that the Republicans would show no remorse for the Bush administration's actions; that they would insist that there is nothing to "reconcile" -; and that they would stay on the attack, pummeling the Democrats as weak, overly sympathetic to terrorists, and endangering national security.

    Printing: Democrats' 'Battered Wife Syndrome' 2009

  • In dismissing the idea of a "truth and reconciliation commission," Obama also recognizes that the Republicans would show no remorse for the Bush administration's actions; that they would insist that there is nothing to "reconcile" -; and that they would stay on the attack, pummeling the Democrats as weak, overly sympathetic to terrorists, and endangering national security.

    Democrats' 'Battered Wife Syndrome' 2009

  • "reconcile" is reciprocally used as in the Hebrew Hithpahel conjugation, appease, obtain the favor of.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • One thing I’ve been trying to reconcile is how to equate “this” with “that”.

    Jenni's life at the moment Jenni's life at the moment 2009

  • One thing I’ve been trying to reconcile is how to equate “this” with “that”.

    Archive 2009-01-01 Jenni's life at the moment 2009

  • The one on this list that I can’t reconcile is The Wrestler.

    Top 10 Movies of the Decade » Scene-Stealers 2009

  • I think within the ECB's framework, you can reconcile the code words and the long-term strategy. "

    'The ECB Has Done a Perfect Job' 2007

Comments

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  • ...need to reconcile difference in size between plus and 20...

    October 30, 2007

  • verb: make (one thing) compatible with (another)

    Peggy was unable to reconcile her kind friend Jane with the cruel and merciless character Jane played on television.

    October 19, 2016