SINCE 1828
olive branch
nounDefinition of olive branch
1
: a branch of the olive tree especially when used as a symbol of peace
2
: an offer or gesture of conciliation or goodwill
Examples of olive branch in a Sentence
The winner extended an olive branch to his opponent by calling him a great player.
Recent Examples on the Web
Before the latest round of talks started, China had extended a few olive branches to Washington. — Lingling Wei, WSJ, "U.S. Pushes China to Follow Through on Trade Promises," 7 Jan. 2019 Speaking of love, Mark is ready to offer Debbie an olive branch. — Kathryn Lindsay, refinery29.com, "R29 Binge Club: Glow Season 2, Episodes 1-10," 29 June 2018 The cancellation was an olive branch to Pyongyang, which has long complained that the exercises were invasion preparations. — Lolita C. Baldor, Fox News, "US: Stoppage of US, Korea exercises cause readiness loss," 25 Sep. 2018 And so far, U.S. officials have found that offering an olive branch has yielded little, ushering in a much colder era in U.S.-China relations. — Kate O’keeffe, WSJ, "U.S. to Restrict Chinese Chip Maker From Doing Business With American Firms," 29 Oct. 2018 In June, Trump — after reported cajoling from House Republican leaders including Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan — appeared to extend Roby an olive branch. — Li Zhou, Vox, "Trump endorsed one of his critics. Will it be enough to help her win her runoff in Alabama?," 17 July 2018 In preparing the statement, Zillo asked if there was any sign of contrition from Gossage, something resembling an olive branch. — New York Times, "An Exiled Old-Timer, Goose Gossage Still Won’t Back Down," 15 June 2018 The coin will also be available in silver and nickel, and features a dove and olive branch motif, as well as other symbolic items. — Natasha Bach, Fortune, "'The Burger for World Peace:' How Singapore Businesses Are Capitalizing on the Trump-Kim Summit," 11 June 2018 Amid the attacks, Dorsey this summer began extending an olive branch to some of Twitter's leading critics. — Tony Romm, chicagotribune.com, "Inside Facebook and Twitter's secret meetings with Trump aides and conservative leaders," 27 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'olive branch.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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