propitiate

propitiate (prəˈpɪʃɪˌeɪt)

—vb
	(tr) to appease or make well disposed; conciliate

[C17: from Latin propitiāre to appease, from propitius gracious]

pro'pitiable

—*adj*

propiti'ation

—n

propiti'atious

—*adj*

pro'pitiative

—*adj*

pro'pitiator

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Word Origin & History

propitiate

1640s, from L. propitiatus, pp. of propitiare (see propitiation).

Example sentences

It is a vision of tribes who worship together, propitiate the gods together, and die together.

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Related Words

appease expiate

pious reconcile

Matching Quote

"On starlight nights I used to pace up and down those long, cold streets, scowling at the little, sleeping houses on either side, with their storm-windows and covered back porches. They were flimsy shelters, most of them poorly built of light wood, with spindle porch-posts horribly mutilated by the turning-lathe. Yet for all their frailness, how much jealousy and envy and unhappiness some of them managed to contain! The life that went on in them seemed to me made up of evasions and negations; shifts to save cooking, to save washing and cleaning, devices to propitiate the tongue of gossip. This guarded mode of existence was like living under a tyranny. People's speech, their voices, their very glances, became furtive and repressed. Every individual taste, every natural appetite, was bridled by caution. The people asleep in those houses, I thought, tried to live like the mice in their own kitchens; to make no noise, to leave no trace, to slip over the surface of things in the dark."

-Willa Cather

propitiate

pro·pi·ti·ate