Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To ease the anger or agitation of.
- v. To end war, fighting, or violence in; establish peace in.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To appease; calm; quiet; allay the agitation or excitement of: as, to pacify a man when angry.
- To restore peace to; tranquilize: as, to pacify countries in contention.
- Synonyms To conciliate, assuage, still, lull, smooth, compose, soothe, mollify.
- To make peaceful by force; render inactive by depriving of the means of opposition.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To bring peace to (a place or situation), by ending war, fighting, violence, anger or agitation.
- v. transitive To appease (someone).
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make to be at peace; to appease; to calm; to still; to quiet; to allay the agitation, excitement, or resentment of; to tranquillize
WordNet 3.0
- v. fight violence and try to establish peace in (a location)
- v. cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of
Etymologies
- From Latin pāx ("peace") + verb faciō ("I do, make"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English pacifien, from Old French pacifier, from Latin pācificāre : pāx, pāc-, peace; + -ficāre, -fy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is impossible for me," he writes to Nagni, the French nuncio, 2 April, 1629, "to put in jeopardy the common fatherhood and, in consequence, to be no longer able to heal and pacify, which is the proper business of the pope as vicar of Christ”
“In 112 BCE, the Han's southern campaign to "pacify" the Southern Yue subjugated the Southern and Western Barbarians, resulting in the establishment of Yuexi and Shenli commanderies. 21 In 109 BCE, the Han conquered the Laojin and Mimo peoples. 22 Under enormous military pressure, the king of Dian surrendered.”
Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan (Second Century BCE to Twentieth Century CE)
“Promoted to Headline (H2) on 9/27/09: Obama's LBJ Moment yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'Obama\'s LBJ Moment'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'Article: As in Vietnam, the goal would seem to be to install a regime run by the United States and to "pacify" the country into accepting it.”
“The Turkish-Armenian dialogue is known to have been advocated by successive U.S. administrations as a way to "pacify" the Armenian lobby and to weaken the incessant congressional efforts for U.S. recognition of the "Armenian genocide," a development that would most certainly damage U.S.”
“As in Vietnam, the goal would seem to be to install a regime run by the United States and to "pacify" the country into accepting it.”
“The US and its NATO allies can barely come up with the troops to "pacify" Afganistan which has only 25M people without contemplating going into Pakistan with its population of 130M.”
John Terry’s sacking as England captain tells us something interesting...
“He also publicly denounced Israel for seeking, in his words, to "pacify" the Palestinians rather than reach a peace agreement with them and he praised the work of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of The Israel Lobby.”
Jacob Heilbrunn: Neocons Win Big Victory Over Obama: Charles Freeman Resigns
“So this might've been sent out to them as a way to kind of pacify the troops.”
“It seems that the thirst for oil is so great as to even place the Iraqis on reservations as was done to "pacify" our own Native Americans.”
Tom Hayden: Pressuring the Democrats on Peace: A Commentary on the Fifth Anniversary of the War
“Kabila's government has vowed to "pacify" the territory, but the”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pacify’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 327 more...
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Them's Fighting Words
annihilate, clandestine, conflagration, enmity, feral, furtive, impede, intrepid, pacify, pugnacious, ruse, stratagem and 5 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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fasten-ating
a reflection on the Indo-European root pag & pak to fasten
peace, pay, patio, fay, fang, impact, pax, newfangled, pagan, peasant, pectin, spinto and 58 more...
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Words To Use In Creative Writing
hag-ridden, light-heeled, wendigo, longshanks, fatuous, insipid, sodden, bulging, sycophantic, uncourtly, gauche, assuasive and 102 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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mager's Words
enigmatic, pragmatic, pulchritudinous, nincompoop, annihilation, sociality, entailment, acrosome, egalitarian, culture, technocracy, shenanigan and 541 more...
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everythingecstatic's Words
cadence, frenetic, eloquence, paradigm, nocturne, elusive, effervescence, soliloquy, plethora, elision, aqueous, transcend and 166 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL P
pacifistic, pacify, palatable, palaver, palliate, pallid, palpable, pamper, panacea, pandemic, pandemonium, panegyric and 209 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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What a concept
surrender, submit, yield, self-sacrifice, relent, capitulate, compromise, accommodate, commiserate, forgive, placate, give and 94 more...
Tweets
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