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. 2005The 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. 2005It 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 2002The 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.
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But that’s not enough to appease this administration.—The Editorial Board, Oc Register, 10 Mar. 2026 Ben, making good on the promise to lead with a better mindset, agrees to move lunch up 45 minutes and appease the guests with canapes in the meantime.—Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 10 Mar. 2026 These countries once wondered whether Iran could be appeased and contained.—Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 28 Feb. 2026 Among those potential moves to appease MAHA would be a ban on pre-harvest desiccation, a process where weed killers are applied to crops before harvest to make harvesting easier.—Garrett Downs, CNBC, 27 Feb. 2026 See All Example Sentences for appease
Word History
Etymology
Middle English appesen, from Anglo-French apeser, apaiser, from a- (from Latin ad-) + pais peace — more at peace
Middle English appesen "to appease," from early French apaiser (same meaning), from a- "to" and pais "peace," from Latin pac-, pax "peace" — related to pacify, peace