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appeasement

 - 4 dictionary results

ap⋅pease

  [uh-peez]
Use appeasement in a Sentence
–verb (used with object), -peased, -peas⋅ing.
1. to bring to a state of peace, quiet, ease, calm, or contentment; pacify; soothe: to appease an angry king.
2. to satisfy, allay, or relieve; assuage: The fruit appeased his hunger.
3. to yield or concede to the belligerent demands of (a nation, group, person, etc.) in a conciliatory effort, sometimes at the expense of justice or other principles.
Origin:
1300–50; ME apesen < AF apeser, OF apais(i)er, equiv. to a- a- 5 + paisi- peace + -er inf. suffix

Related forms:
ap⋅peas⋅a⋅ble, adjective
ap⋅peas⋅a⋅ble⋅ness, noun
ap⋅peas⋅a⋅bly, adverb
ap⋅pease⋅ment, noun
ap⋅peas⋅er, noun
ap⋅peas⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
1. calm, placate. 3. Appease, conciliate, propitiate imply trying to preserve or obtain peace. To appease is to make anxious overtures and often undue concessions to satisfy the demands of someone with a greed for power, territory, etc.: Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler at Munich. To conciliate is to win an enemy or opponent over by displaying a willingness to be just and fair: When mutual grievances are recognized, conciliation is possible. To propitiate is to admit a fault, and, by trying to make amends, to allay hostile feeling: to propitiate an offended neighbor.

Antonyms:
1. enrage. 2. increase, arouse, sharpen. 3. defy.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To appeasement
ap·pease·ment   (ə-pēz'mənt)   
n.  

    1. An act of appeasing.

    2. The condition of being appeased.

  2. The policy of granting concessions to potential enemies to maintain peace.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

appeasement

A political policy of conceding to aggression by a warlike nation.

Note: A classic example of appeasement is the Munich Pact of 1938, negotiated between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler. Chamberlain, the prime minister of Britain, allowed Hitler to annex part of Czechoslovakia to Germany.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

appease 
1330, from O.Fr. apeser "to pacify, appease," from the phrase a paisier "bring to peace," from a- "to" + pais, from L. pacem (nom. pax) "peace." Appeasement (1439) first recorded 1919 in international political sense; not pejorative until failure of Chamberlain's policy toward Germany in 1939 (Methods of appeasement was Chamberlain's description of his policy).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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