Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A branch of an olive tree regarded as an emblem of peace.
- n. An offer of peace: bore an olive branch to the new round of negotiations.
Wiktionary
- n. Used other than as an idiom: A branch of an olive tree.
- n. Such a branch offered as an emblem of peace.
- n. Any symbol of peace, or peace offering to an adversary to show good will and in the hope of securing peace.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Fig.) A child.
WordNet 3.0
- n. something offered to an adversary in the hope of obtaining peace
Etymologies
- With reference to classical myth, where the olivebranch was a symbol of peace and prosperity, merging with Biblical allusion to Genesis 8:11, where a dove returns to Noah's ark as a sign that the Flood is subsiding. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Relieved, I decided to offer an olive branch to Iris.”
“Three gold olive-branch pins, exact replicas of the gold olive branch in the packet that Aldrin tossed down at the last minute to the lunar surface during the EVA.”
“In the video Amriki delivered an eloquent rejoinder to President Obama’s speech in Cairo, in which the president had extended an olive branch to the Muslim world.”
“In the first, which he called An Address to the Irish People, and wrote during the first week of his residence in Ireland, he commences by eulogizing the Irish, explains to them that all religions are good which make men good, and shows that, being neither Protestant nor Catholic, he can offer the olive branch to each.”
“In Sienese paintings of the Annunciation, Gabriel generally holds an olive branch rather than a lily, since the lily was a symbol of Florence, Siena’s enemy during the early Renaissance.”
“He had given her his ring, too big for any of her fingers, and she turned it in the lamplight, looking at the demi-falcon rising, with an olive branch in its mouth, and underneath the words 'Semper fidelis'.”
“Feb., 1872) on Windthorst's leadership of the Centre, held out to the latter the olive branch of peace on condition of abandoning”
“She looked down at the demi-falcon rising, with the olive branch in its mouth, and 'Semper fidelis' inscribed underneath.”
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