propitiatory
Americanadjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- propitiatorily adverb
- unpropitiatory adjective
Etymology
Origin of propitiatory
1275–1325; (noun) Middle English propiciatori the mercy seat < Late Latin propitiātōrium ( propitiate, -tory 2 ); (adj.) < Late Latin propitiātōrius ( -tory 1 )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ancestors are invoked who around her as she starts the propitiatory dance.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was a brief Cabinet crisis, in which Premier Solh shuffled his ministers in a faintly propitiatory manner.
From Time Magazine Archive
Huckins rubbed his hands together in satisfaction at this smile, and sidled up to the simpering spinster with a very propitiatory air.
From Cynthia Wakeham's Money by Green, Anna Katharine
But what is the propitiatory element in the Christian Atonement? let Canon Liddon answer: "the ignominy and pain needed for the redemption."
From My Path to Atheism by Besant, Annie Wood
They haunted well-known spots on the road by which the Shades must pass to their last resting-place, but as they left the living unmolested, the living were not called upon to make propitiatory offerings.
From The Fijians A Study of the Decay of Custom by Thomson, Basil
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
