propitiate

• This was the only approach to a “religious service” I ever saw, and was partly intended to propitiate or frighten away the spirits of the departed, of whom the Australian blacks have a great horror. —  Adventures of Louis de Rougemont
• And soon there would be a Matron to propitiate, to consult, possibly even to antagonize. —  Shroud for a Nightingale
• [328 Sidenote: Trace of ancestor worship among the Mafulu This preservation of the skulls and bones of chiefs and other notables for years, and the dipping of them in the blood of pigs at a great festival, must apparently be designed to propitiate or influence in some way the ghosts of the persons to whom the skulls and bones belonged in their lifetime. —  The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) The Belief Among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea and Melanesia
• I have a presentiment that sweets wont sweeten her, Daisy I don't know what "propitiate" means," I said, sighing. —  Daisy
• The killing of the pigs at this ceremony is regarded as the act which will, they think, finally propitiate or drive away the ghost of the departed It will be noticed that, though representatives from several communities may be invited and come to the funeral, only one community is invited to the subsequent funeral feast, just as only one community is invited to the big feast, which latter we must, I think, associate with the general superstitious idea of laying the ghosts of past departed chiefs and notables. —  The Mafulu Mountain People of British New Guinea

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus