Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To ease the anger or agitation of (a person or the mind, for example).
  • transitive verb To calm or soothe (a feeling, such as anger).
  • transitive verb To end war, fighting, or violence in (a region or country), especially by military force.
  • transitive verb To subdue or quell (an insurrection or conflict, for example).
  • transitive verb To cause (a group) to end a rebellion or other violent action.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make to be at peace; to appease; to calm; to still; to quiet; to allay the agitation, excitement, or resentment of; to tranquillize

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To bring peace to (a place or situation), by ending war, fighting, violence, anger or agitation.
  • verb transitive To appease (someone).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb fight violence and try to establish peace in (a location)
  • verb cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pacifien, from Old French pacifier, from Latin pācificāre : pāx, pāc-, peace; see pag- in Indo-European roots + -ficāre, -fy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin pāx ("peace") + verb faciō ("I do, make").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pacify.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.