Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To gain or regain the goodwill or favor of; appease.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To appease and render favorable; make propitious; conciliate.
  • To make propitiation or atonement.

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

  • transitive verb To appease to render favorable; to make propitious; to conciliate.
  • intransitive verb To make propitiation; to atone.

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

  • verb transitive, dated To conciliate, appease or make peace with someone, particularly a god or spirit.

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

  • verb make peace with

Etymologies

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

[Latin propitiāre, propitiāt-, from propitius, propitious; see propitious.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin prōpitiāre ("make favourable"), from prōpitius ("favourable, gracious").

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Examples

  • "I don't know what 'propitiate' means," I said, sighing.

    Daisy 1868

  • "I don't know what 'propitiate' means," I said, sighing.

    Daisy Susan Warner 1852

  • So he tried to propitiate Job in all manner of ways.

    Mary Barton 2010

  • Bond markets, those invisible deities that debt reduction is designed to propitiate, could never be confident that debt triggers will actually reduce government debt.

    Richard (RJ) Eskow: Trigger Happy RJ 2011

  • Why don't the Na'vi feel the natural need to propitiate their gods -- on whose whims their lives constantly depend -- so nature doesn't get out of control?

    Archive 2009-12-01 2009

  • Why don't the Na'vi feel the natural need to propitiate their gods -- on whose whims their lives constantly depend -- so nature doesn't get out of control?

    Movie Review: Avatar 2009

  • Bond markets, those invisible deities that debt reduction is designed to propitiate, could never be confident that debt triggers will actually reduce government debt.

    Richard (RJ) Eskow: Trigger Happy RJ 2011

  • Details of the ritual are sketchy, but it is believed that Brown intends to cast some of his followers out of the cult, and to elevate preferred acolytes, in an attempt to propitiate their god, Gallup-Mori.

    Horror in Browntown 2009

  • Him Von Schmidt desired to please and propitiate because from him could be obtained the

    Chapter 44 2010

  • However, to propitiate the Hungry Folk, he made one of them leader of the ship expedition.

    THE SUNLANDERS 2010

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