appease

English

Etymology

From Middle English apesen, from Old French apeser (“to pacify, bring to peace”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈpiːz/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːz

Verb

appease (third-person singular simple present appeases, present participle appeasing, simple past and past participle appeased)

1. To make quiet; to calm; to reduce to a state of peace; to dispel (anger or hatred).

   Synonyms: calm, pacify, placate, quell, quiet, still, lull

   to appease the tumult of the ocean

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

     'First, a little refreshment to reward my exertions. You may as well be quiet. It is not the first time, or the second, that your veins have appeased my thirst!'

2. To come to terms with; to adapt to the demands of.

   Synonyms: mollify, propitiate

   They appeased the angry gods with burnt offerings.

Antonyms

• antagonize

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• “appease”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “appease”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• paepaes