Definition of APPEASE

Choose the Right Synonym for appease

pacify, appease, placate, mollify, propitiate, conciliate mean to ease the anger or disturbance of. pacify suggests a soothing or calming. pacified by a sincere apology appease implies quieting insistent demands by making concessions. appease their territorial ambitions placate suggests changing resentment or bitterness to goodwill. a move to placate local opposition mollify implies soothing hurt feelings or rising anger. a speech that mollified the demonstrators propitiate implies averting anger or malevolence especially of a superior being. propitiated his parents by dressing up conciliate suggests ending an estrangement by persuasion, concession, or settling of differences. conciliating the belligerent nations

Examples of appease in a Sentence

But I imagine he and his siblings, who profited handsomely from the sale, have mixed emotions. They may be sad they had to sell, yet relieved that they are no longer under pressure to appease Wall Street's demand for growth and profits. — James Laube, Wine Spectator, 31 Mar. 2005 The first is that, in affluent America, mothering has gone from an art to a cult, with devotees driving themselves to ever more baroque extremes to appease the goddess of perfect motherhood. — Judith Shulevitz, New York Times Book Review, 20 Feb. 2005 It was last summer, and Gingell, then Sun Microsystems's chief software engineer, had an excuse: His twin-engine Cessna had broken down, and he'd lost track of time while he gabbed on the phone with his mechanic. That wasn't likely to appease Sun's famously tart-tongued CEO, Scott McNealy, who was getting his introductory briefing on a vital new technology initiative that happened to be Gingell's brainchild. — Erick Schonfeld, Business 2.0, September 2002 The California legislature's solution to this seemingly intractable problem was a politically appealing package with features to appease both utility investors and ratepayers. — Benjamin A. Holden, Wall Street Journal, 19 Feb. 1997 They appeased the dictator by accepting his demands in an effort to avoid war. His critics were not appeased by this last speech. They made sacrifices to appease the gods. We had no way to appease our hunger.

Recent Examples on the Web

Sometimes not even the food in my belly appeased it. — Jesmyn Ward, The Atlantic, "How Poverty and Racism Persist in Mississippi," 1 Mar. 2018 Throwing a house party is a pretty big responsibility, but trying to appease every guest’s musical taste is a whole other undertaking. — Natalie Maher, Harper's BAZAAR, "The Best Drinking Songs to Raise a Glass To," 29 Mar. 2019 And a report from the Independent claims that the Reds will push to sign one of either Lascelles or Tarkowski in an attempt to appease critics of their defence. — SI.com, "Report Claims Liverpool Will Raid Burnley or Newcastle in Search of a New Defender This Summer," 21 May 2018 Accordingly, the apartment is dotted with enough chinoiserie to appease any member of the Palm Beach glitterati. — Kathryn O'shea-evans, House Beautiful, "Every Wall is Handpainted in this Tiny Palm Beach Apartment," 11 Mar. 2019 Their popularity has rendered them far too pedestrian to appease the bride who dares to go bold–until now. — Christian Oth, Harper's BAZAAR, "The New Rustic Bride Is Anything But Basic," 5 Nov. 2018 Gone are the days of gritting your teeth through gritty soy lattes to avoid the gastrointestinal effects of lactose and dairy fat; a new, smoother, tastier league of mylks has arrived to appease dairy haters of every ilk. — Marian Bull, GQ, "The Best Non-Dairy Milks for Every Occasion," 12 June 2018 So, did Arlington leaders decide to abandon the Highlands project to appease these anti-business forces? — Richard Greene, star-telegram, "Tax breaks for one development shows why they can be good for a city," 1 June 2018 Simultaneously appeasing activists of both financial and environmental kinds could become one of big food’s biggest challenges in 2019. — Carol Ryan, WSJ, "Plastic Is Big Food’s Next Headache," 28 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'appease.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.