English

Verb

propitiate ‎(third-person singular simple present propitiates, present participle propitiating, simple past and past participle propitiated)

1. (transitive) To conciliate, appease, or make peace with someone, particularly a god or spirit.
   • 1720, Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer, Book 1, lines 191-192:

     Let fierce Achilles, dreadful in his rage,

     The god propitiate, and the pest assuage.

   • 1849, Herman Melville, Mardi, Vol. 2, ch. 25:

     But polite and politic it is, to propitiate your hostess.

   • 1910, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, The Pools of Silence, ch. 30:

     [H]e heard . . . one of the soldiers singing as he cleaned his rifle—the men always sang over this business, as if to propitiate the gun god.

   • 2001 Sept. 30, Thom Shanker, "Who Will Fight This War?," New York Times (retrieved 21 April 2015):

     By saying unequivocally that conscription is not an option, the Bush administration and the Rumsfeld Pentagon, while propitiating the ghost of Vietnam, are also profiting from the success of the all-volunteer military.

Synonyms

• appease

Derived terms

• propitiation
• propitious

Translations

Latin

Verb

propitiāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of propitiō