propitiate

American  

[pruh-pish-ee-eyt] / prəˈpɪʃ iˌeɪt /

verb (used with object)

propitiated, propitiating

1. to make favorably inclined; appease; conciliate.

   Antonyms:

   arouse, anger

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propitiate British  

/ prəˈpɪʃɪˌeɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to appease or make well disposed; conciliate

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Usage

What does propitiate mean? Propitiate means to gain the favor of or make things right with someone, especially after having done something wrong. The noun form of propitiate is propitiation. Close synonyms of propitiate are conciliate and appease. Propitiate is commonly used in a religious context. It’s especially used in Christianity to refer to the act of propitiation that Christians believe Jesus made to atone for sin—or to the atonement that Christians believe they should make to God. Example: To gain redemption, we must do our best to propitiate—to earn the favor we have lost.

Related Words

See appease.

Other Word Forms

• nonpropitiable adjective
• nonpropitiative adjective
• propitiable adjective
• propitiatingly adverb
• propitiation noun
• propitiatious adjective
• propitiative adjective
• propitiator noun
• unpropitiable adjective
• unpropitiated adjective
• unpropitiating adjective
• unpropitiative adjective

Etymology

Origin of propitiate

1635–45; < Latin propitiātus, past participle of propitiāre to appease. See propitious, -ate ¹

Explanation

If you forgot flowers on your grandma's birthday, you can still propitiate her by sending a bouquet the next day. Propitiate means to appease someone or make them happy by doing a particular thing. Handy strategy for lovers, too. One of the most common uses of propitiate historically was in the sense of appeasing the gods, often with a gift in the form of an animal or human sacrifice. Fortunately, for most people today flowers and candy will do the trick. But then again, some Moms can be tough to appease.

Example Sentences

So when an epidemic gets underway, we don’t waste time on sacrifices to propitiate angry gods or fretting about deadly miasmas seeping in with the night air.

From Washington Post • Jan. 28, 2020

I suspect that Oskar probably still believes that it was just something in my nature: that somebody needed to be sacrificed on the altar on the way to propitiate whatever, and that that was him.

From Slate • Jun. 28, 2016

Was it just to tell the date or propitiate some mountain deity?

From The Guardian • Feb. 8, 2013

But under the logic of the bailout, the markets were in charge, and the overarching aim of the government was to propitiate them to avoid disaster.

From New York Times • Jun. 25, 2010

Roger’s daemon anxiously wagged her terrier tail to propitiate him.

From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman