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placate
in a sentence

show 189 more with this conextual meaning
  • "Don't placate me, Alex," Peterson says with a snort.   (source)
    placate = try to calm someone who is or may become angry or concerned
  • Walter and I take turns muttering placating things about family and forgiveness, but we both have misgivings.   (source)
    placating = soothing or calming
  • she'll win by trying to placate her big ol' angry boy:   (source)
    placate = calm someone who is angry
  • After she'd finished eating—and once Jonah had been placated—Ronnie retired to her room.   (source)
    placated = calmed
  • She'd been trying to placate the children and finally calmed them down by allowing them to open their lunchboxes and begin to eat whatever their mothers had fixed them for lunch.   (source)
    placate = calm someone who is or may become upset
  • Olaf held up a placating hand and even put down his knife.   (source)
    placating = intended to calm someone who is angry or concerned
  • This dead man is bound up with my life, therefore I must do everything, promise everything in order to save myself; I swear blindly that I mean to live only for his sake and his family, with wet lips I try to placate him--and deep down in me lies the hope that I may buy myself off in this way and perhaps even get out of this; it is a little stratagem:   (source)
    placate = calm someone who is or may become angry
  • He was furious and would not be placated.†   (source)
  • To placate everyone, she agreed to let two pups go instead.†   (source)
  • The musicals were "pastries designed to placate the impoverished with daydreams of unattainable bliss."†   (source)
  • "No, Uncle Max, of course not," Paul said in a placatory tone.†   (source)
  • This seems to placate her for the moment and ...†   (source)
  • The outside of the factory was a facade to placate the Nazis.†   (source)
  • Nox, now behind Grave, made to do the same, but Grave started cursing at him, and Nox stopped, lifting his hands in a gesture of placation.†   (source)
  • If the Reds see her, a Silver by blood but Red by nature, raised up with us, they can be placated.†   (source)
  • Molly feels anger rising in her chest—at Dina's unwillingness to accept her for who she is, at Terry's judgments and Jack's need to placate her.†   (source)
  • With the same laser-beam eyes that immediately sought out any unsightly blemish on my sister, she now saw something beneath the surface of her daughter's smile, in her placated, tranquilized movements and in how her body responded whenever Detective Fenerman or the police work came up.†   (source)
  • As an attempt to placate me, it was pretty transparent.†   (source)
  • Rachel laid a placating hand on her husband's sleeve.†   (source)
  • And I'd heard Nigel's answer, first placating—"I'm just doing what Marse Tom told me to do."†   (source)
  • "All right," said Eragon to placate the smith, "if you think I should."†   (source)
  • She too had tried to guess what might put her mother at ease, the words that would placate but not be readily detected as fraudulent.†   (source)
  • The High Priest is holding up his hands, placating her.†   (source)
  • He tried to placate me, he made all the right noises, he told me it was probably a load of rubbish anyway.†   (source)
  • They have perfected the art of giving us just enough freedom; just enough that when we are ready to snap, a little bone is offered and we roll over, belly up, comfortable and placated like a dog I saw once when we visited my grandparents in the Farmlands.†   (source)
  • Cinder made a placating gesture.†   (source)
  • She had the placating tone of a girl promising her pesky mom to eat better.†   (source)
  • Alec's tone was placating.†   (source)
  • Stilgar asked, and she heard the tone of placation in his voice, the attempt to smooth something over.†   (source)
  • While we knew we weren't supposed to hop trains, I placated my conscience by deciding to get on only the slower trains.†   (source)
  • If Jenny really only wanted a dog to hone her parenting skills, I would have tried to talk her in off the ledge and maybe placate her with a goldfish.†   (source)
  • Momma came in placatingly.†   (source)
  • "I trust you," Dan said in a placating murmur.†   (source)
  • Still, I am able to be momentarily placated, knowing that this is something my parents might have understood, if they were here right now.†   (source)
  • For Alex, this meant that in the month between her nomination and her confirmation hearing, she had to do whatever she could to placate five Republican men before they put her through the wringer.†   (source)
  • It mattered little to me how courteous and placating Moody might become on any given day.†   (source)
  • A second draft interim constitution in August gave greater powers to the regions, but this did not placate either Chief Buthelezi or the Conservative Party.†   (source)
  • THE MARRIAGE was on the point of breaking up after two months because Aureliano Segundo, in an attempt to placate Petra Cotes, had a picture taken of her dressed as the Queen of Madagascar.†   (source)
  • Lewis talked the same way; he was a placater, a peacemaker, the kind of person who would hold your hand on an airplane if you were scared, able to quote verbatim the statistics about how it was the safest thing, honestly.†   (source)
  • Led by Twaha, together the men chanted a placation of the Karakoram's deities, promising that they would take only one ibex.†   (source)
  • What kind of excuse would placate her?†   (source)
  • She's still got that cocky smile on her face, knowing that even if she hasn't convinced me to placate my mother, then at least she's planted a little guilt.†   (source)
  • How she balanced the demands of her job, and placating her credit-seeking boss, with raising two teenage kids was a marvel.†   (source)
  • 'He's not looking for you,' Yossarian said, trying to placate him.†   (source)
  • The flower tower helped protect Snow Flower and me, and it placated Beautiful Moon's restless spirit, but it did nothing for Aunt and Uncle, who could not be consoled.†   (source)
  • But if we betray B., for whom we betrayed A., it does not necessarily follow that we have placated A. The life of a divorcee-painter did not in the least resemble the life of the parents she had betrayed.†   (source)
  • Matron once again sent a runner over to Ghosh's bungalow, more to placate Stone than with any faith that Ghosh was back.†   (source)
  • He offered a few of his usual vile condemnations of his heritage but seemed placated by the fact that his grandfather had lost the case against Sylvester Rinds.†   (source)
  • I frowned, and she made a placatory gesture.†   (source)
  • I cannot and will not be placated with bits and pieces of information.†   (source)
  • Well, he shrugged his shoulders and placated his dented ego, that's the nice part about these wordly women.†   (source)
  • "She's very happy, you know," said Meridite, hoping to placate the woman.†   (source)
  • It was only by chance that he returned and found that Mina had been left as an offering to placate a monster that lived in a nearby well.†   (source)
  • Rearden hung up the telephone receiver, with a frown of worry, not about the problem of fuel and the end of the California oil fieldsdisasters of this kind had become habitual-but about the fact that the Washington planners found it necessary to placate him.†   (source)
  • Placatory rites or medicine [Soyinka's glossary].†   (source)
  • "Yes, I'm sure you could, Brigid, and fine stories they'd be," Felicity says, as sweetly as a mother placating her irritable child.†   (source)
  • On the other hand, the reality of subjective sensations, desires and--may we even say--illusions, composes the basic substance of our existence, and religion alone, in its many forms, attempts to address, organize, and placate these.†   (source)
  • His lords pleaded with him to build inland; his priests told him he must placate the gods by giving Elenei back to the sea; even his smallfolk begged him to relent.†   (source)
  • And he had enough money to placate most of his minor creditors.†   (source)
  • He would lunge forward, enraged, dangerous; nothing would placate him, except for her to beg his forgiveness, hugging his knees — finally sharing a place with him, at the center of things.†   (source)
  • "No, now look," the brother placated.†   (source)
  • However, I will try and get a statement from my-superiors— which may satisfy you and perhaps placate the Freedom League.†   (source)
  • Then at this moment Sophie, as if sensing the perhaps sinister shift in Nathan's mood, hurried to his side and touched his shoulder with a fluttery, nervously placating hand.†   (source)
  • I might as well try to work in a henyard as in this house—JAMES [PLACATING]: You really ought to put her away, Father.†   (source)
  • "I would pay you if I could," I said placatingly, "but I have nothing.†   (source)
  • Her eyes waver guiltily and she adds in a tone which begins to placate.†   (source)
  • They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle, or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies.†   (source)
  • The Indians could be heard from greater distances and in greater numbers than had been guessed, sending up placating but proud messages to the sun in continual ceremonies of dancing.†   (source)
  • Frank wanted to say something to excuse Percy and placate the god, but he didn't know what.   (source)
    placate = calm someone who is angry or upset
  • It seemed like he'd spent half his life placating Gramps.   (source)
    placating = calming someone who is or may become angry or concerned
  • It was soothing, calming, placating.   (source)
    placating = calming (to remove anger or concern)
  • "There is no broken law," Aro said in a placating voice, but every one of us could hear that a qualification was coming.   (source)
    placating = intended to calm others who are upset
  • Singer wasn't placated.   (source)
    placated = calmed from anger or concern
  • Usually, in her growing-up tantrums, this daughter would storm out of the house and come back hours later, placated, the sweetness in her nature reasserted, bearing silly gifts for everyone in the family, refrigerator magnets, little stuffed hairballs with roll-around eyeballs.   (source)
    placated = calmed
  • Meanwhile, we will eliminate the threat of a curse by placating the witches and honoring a portion of their old agreement with Elias Bram.   (source)
    placating = calming someone who is or may become angry or concerned
  • They turned their shoulders to her most savage slashes, and with wagging tails and mincing steps strove to placate her wrath.   (source)
    placate = calm someone who is angry
  • She made a placating gesture toward him.†   (source)
  • I watched his eyes carefully for some sign that he was placating me, but they were perfectly clear.†   (source)
  • I drew on my resources: performing, placating, making my family smile.†   (source)
  • Will raised his hands in a placating gesture.†   (source)
  • Piper raised her hands in a placating gesture.†   (source)
  • Placating her, so that she could be happy for a little while longer.†   (source)
  • David continued to stare at the fire, his voice soft and placating.†   (source)
  • Hazel held up her hand in a placating gesture.†   (source)
  • Orrin spread his hands in a placating gesture.†   (source)
  • "Okay," I said, trying for a placating tone.†   (source)
  • "Your business is doing better than mine, Cousin," said Jen Shinnan, voice placating.†   (source)
  • "Here they are," she said in her singsong placating voice.†   (source)
  • "Hey, we'll let them decide," Emmett said in a placating tone.†   (source)
  • Adopting a placating tone, Roran said, "It's not that bad.†   (source)
  • Placated, P. D. and I confided my project to the Dean and his beautiful wife.†   (source)
  • His need for her and his vulnerability to her screamed at him to back off, to placate her while there was still time if indeed there still was , as a tribe in one of ,those Rider Haggard stories would have placated their goddess when she was angry, by making sacrifice to her effigy.†   (source)
  • I made a placating gesture to Sim.†   (source)
  • He and a handful of his rabid followers claimed that these older, more sedate congregations were corrupting the Word of God and placating backsliders and otherwise serving as havens for alleged Christians who were lukewarm at best.†   (source)
  • I faked it, though--when they made their way toward me and I realized it was me they had come to see, I smiled and made all the usual placating noises, the "oh yesses" and "goodness graciouses" that make up my end of most conversations these days.†   (source)
  • His tone turned placating.†   (source)
  • Much of that time they spent dealing with the inhabitants of the city—usually placating crowds who were furious with some action of the Varden's—and hunting groups of soldiers who had fled Uru'baen and were preying upon travelers, peasants, and nearby estates to support themselves.†   (source)
  • "All right," said Eragon to placate the smith, "if you think I should."†   (source)
  • 'Well — no,' said Hermione, stretching out a placatory hand towards him.†   (source)
  • It will be a simple ceremony to placate the shade of Jamis.†   (source)
  • "I miss them terribly," I reply, saying the words to placate her.†   (source)
  • "I believe you," the pastor said placatingly, his mouth a grim line.†   (source)
  • Together we manage employees' problems, placate customers, massage vendors.†   (source)
  • He never got involved anymore; his job was to placate, to smooth, once it was all over.†   (source)
  • He was probably with Lord Tywin, trying to placate the Tyrells.†   (source)
  • He did not deny his acts or attempt to placate Eragon.†   (source)
  • Oh, I'll lie to Victoria about that later, naturally, just to placate her.†   (source)
  • Ah, well, it'll slow us down, but I suppose we have to placate Hrothgar.†   (source)
  • It wasn't my fault!" he had screamed to her, as if she were the only judge whom he had to placate.†   (source)
  • 'All right, all right,' Dobbs sought to placate him.†   (source)
  • "I said you're not cleared," the Chairman said placatingly.†   (source)
  • Snow Flower's son's face crumpled in disappointment, but I held up my hand placatingly.†   (source)
  • Olaf held his hands out placatingly, the genial host again.†   (source)
  • "I can offer a temporary share of the magic," I say, feeling that I must placate them.†   (source)
  • ""I'm afraid I can't do that," she said with a soothing voice meant to placate the overmedicated.†   (source)
  • It's only a question of time, Mr. Rearden," the man said placatingly.†   (source)
  • "I like the Constitutions," Tyler said placatingly.†   (source)
  • Inspector Supervisor Skaaiat gestured, placatory, the pin on her cuff flashing once as she did.†   (source)
  • "Look," said Mr. Thompson placatingly, resuming the edge of his seat.†   (source)
  • With a glare of suspicion, she asked, "You're not saying that just to placate me, are you?†   (source)
  • I began placatingly, and stretched out my hand.†   (source)
  • For with cinema, the Yanks had apparently discovered how to placate the entire working class at the cost of a nickel a week.†   (source)
  • 'Look, Harry' said Sirius placatingly, 'James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can't you?†   (source)
  • But there was another part of him, more calculating and less cowed, which reminded him that he could not play the part of Scheherazade if he grew frightened and placatory whenever she stormed.†   (source)
  • "Sure," I said, hoping to placate her.†   (source)
  • Brandeur said, placatingly.†   (source)
  • They might elect to stay behind, but he could not leave Mina with them for fear that they would hurt her in some mad effort to placate the thing outside.†   (source)
  • You should attempt to placate him.†   (source)
  • I replied that while we valued Mr. Kaunda's wisdomand support, it was too soon to suspend the armed struggle, for we had not yet achieved the goal for which we took up arms; it was not the ANC's job, I said, to help Mr. de Klerk placate his right-wing supporters.†   (source)
  • ," Roran murmured, attempting to placate her, but she shrugged off his hand and said, "The last trip you sent him on nearly killed him, and you've just had him whipped within an inch of his life!†   (source)
  • She'd used her new army to destroy her erstwhile father-in-law and again taken the property of her opponents to placate her barons and enrich her supporters.†   (source)
  • That was enough to placate Gramps.†   (source)
  • On the morning the Romans were scheduled to leave, Piper was sitting on the pier at the canoe lake, trying to placate the naiads.†   (source)
  • While Prusias had sought to placate her with the vast duchy of Holbrymn, it sounded as though Yuga had already consumed all of her subjects and now desired more.†   (source)
  • Imagine trying to placate a fussy baby when his crying sends major body rushes up and down your spine, crashing into your skull and vibrating inside your brain.†   (source)
  • As Mortenson struggled to placate a policeman demanding that he hand over his passport for inspection, Aslam arrived in a borrowed jeep and introduced himself.†   (source)
  • You mean to placate us with this?†   (source)
  • You think to placate him?†   (source)
  • "My response is ambiguous, I know," I said, making that placatory gesture Inspector Supervisor Skaaiat had already used.†   (source)
  • Just placate them.†   (source)
  • TYRONE Placatingly.†   (source)
  • Then placatingly.†   (source)
  • JAMIE Placatingly.†   (source)
  • Uncle Peter's voice came as from a far distance, plaintive, placating.†   (source)
  • PARRITT—(lamely—placating them now) Why, I was just putting you right.†   (source)
  • His voice, so uncommonly unctuous and placating, sounded strange to David's ears despite his misery.†   (source)
  • She pulled her face into a placating and childlike expression.†   (source)
  • Belle put an eager placating hand on Melanie's arm and then hastily withdrew it.†   (source)
  • Very likely until the last he still believed that Max and Mame had to be placated, not for the actual fact, but because of his presence there.†   (source)
  • There is proverbially a mystery among most men of new wealth, how they made their first ten thousand; it is the qualities they showed then, before they became bullies, when every man was someone to be placated, when only hope sustained them and they could count on nothing from the world but what could be charmed from it, that make them, if they survive their triumph, successful with women.†   (source)
  • And it began hurriedly to sing in a very placating way, but rather muffled because it dared not uncurl.†   (source)
  • …perfectly normal human instinct which you Anglo-Saxons insist upon calling lust and in whose service you revert in sabbaticals to the primordial caverns, the fall from what you call grace fogged and clouded by Heaven-defying words of extenuation and explanation, the return to grace heralded by Heaven-placating cries of satiated abasement and flagellation, in neither of which—the defiance or the placation—can Heaven find interest or even, after the first two or three times, diversion.†   (source)
  • Now, after the surprise, there was the flash of fury, then the merely humble and aggrieved expression and the placating whine, "What made you go and do that now, Boss, what made you go and do that?"†   (source)
  • …and he tried once more to come to terms with her, buy her off maybe with money now, since Father said that a man who could believe that a scorned and outraged and angry woman could be bought off with formal logic would believe that she could be placated with money too, and it didn't work; or if Bon was there and it was Bon himself who refused the offer, though nobody ever did know if Bon ever knew Sutpen was his father or not, whether he was trying to revenge his mother or not at first…†   (source)
  • There had been small breaches of conduct to be concealed from her elders, jealous girls to be flouted or placated, styles of dresses and materials to be chosen, different coiffures to be tried and, oh, so many, many other matters to be decided!†   (source)
  • She hardly knew how to answer this, and yet her wrath was not placated.†   (source)
  • "It's all right, mother," Scott was saying as he kept tight hold of White Fang and placated him.†   (source)
  • For the rest of the term he tormented Philip cruelly, and, though Philip tried to keep out of his way, the school was so small that it was impossible; he tried being friendly and jolly with him; he abased himself, so far as to buy him a knife; but though Singer took the knife he was not placated.†   (source)
  • You were not sure," I said, and was placated by the sound of a faint sigh that passed between us like the flight of a bird in the night.†   (source)
  • She moved as if to turn away, but realizing that there was an understanding between them, and that he must be placated if things were to go on, she drew him by his coat lapels out of the range of the hearing of the others, who were already looking and listening, and began.†   (source)
  • (as Jimmy stiffens with a pathetic attempt at dignity—placatingly) No, don't tell me, Jimmy.†   (source)
  • He couldn't help it," she interposed placatingly.†   (source)
  • She was trying to placate her critics by being a courteous hostess like La Beale Isoud.†   (source)
  • So I'll take beck de cry-baby," he offered placatingly.†   (source)
  • You're too harsh with him, Bertha," her sister smiled placatingly.†   (source)
  • Is Nathan a citizen, Bertha?" she asked placatingly.†   (source)
  • "Yes, sir," I said placatingly.†   (source)
  • …perfectly normal human instinct which you Anglo-Saxons insist upon calling lust and in whose service you revert in sabbaticals to the primordial caverns, the fall from what you call grace fogged and clouded by Heaven-defying words of extenuation and explanation, the return to grace heralded by Heaven-placating cries of satiated abasement and flagellation, in neither of which—the defiance or the placation—can Heaven find interest or even, after the first two or three times, diversion.†   (source)
  • LARRY—(placatingly) Nothing, Harry.†   (source)
  • HICKEY—(placatingly) All right!†   (source)
  • David looked up, smiling placatingly.†   (source)
  • "No," placatingly.†   (source)
  • Then he discovered his mistake and tried to placate her.†   (source)
  • His manner of sneering at what he called "parlor socialists" (though the phrase was not overwhelmingly new) had a power which made her wish to placate his company of well-fed, speed-loving administrators.†   (source)
  • At any cost she must placate this man; she knew the die was cast, and that if Lassiter did not soften to a woman's grace and beauty and wiles, then it would be because she could not make him.†   (source)
  • And even Billee, the good-natured, was less good-natured, and whined not half so placatingly as in former days.†   (source)
  • "I would certainly like to learn something that would give me a chance to work up, have some future in it," replied Clyde, genially and with a desire to placate his young cousin as much as possible.†   (source)
  • He was to placate voluble voters who came in to complain of everything from the smell of sewer-gas to the midnight beer parties of neighbors; he was to dictate office correspondence to the touchy stenographer, who was not a Working Girl but a Nice Girl Who Was Working; to give publicity to the newspapers; to buy paper-clips and floor-wax and report-blanks at the lowest prices; to assist, in need, the two part-time physicians in the city clinic; to direct the nurses and the two sanitary…†   (source)
  • He whined placatingly, squirmed and wriggled to show his good will and intentions, and even ventured, as a bribe for peace, to lick Buck's face with his warm wet tongue.†   (source)
  • And Smillie, noting the agreement between his and Mason's assertions, yet anxious to placate him, returned: "Yes, I know.†   (source)
  • "You're right, I know," said Clyde placatingly, for he was still hoping for this hinted-at promotion.†   (source)
  • But she proceeded to punish him roundly, until he gave over all attempts at placation, and whirled in a circle, his head away from her, his shoulders receiving the punishment of her teeth.†   (source)
  • We absolutely must bag some game to placate this man–eater, or one of these mornings master won't find enough pieces of his manservant to serve him."†   (source)
  • Their captains and passengers no longer prepare for departure with sacrifices to placate the gods, and after returning, they don't traipse in wreaths and gold ribbons to say thanks at the local temple."†   (source)
  • Burnt offerings, courteous prayer, libation, smoke of sacrifice, with all of these, men can placate the gods when someone oversteps and errs.†   (source)
  • Conway thought this good advice, but Mallinson was still unplacated.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unplacated means not and reverses the meaning of placated. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • He held up placating hands the size of soup plates.†   (source)
  • /To placate/ and /to antagonize/ are examples.†   (source)
  • In the end, indeed, even so ardent a purist as Richard Grant White adopted it, as he did /to placate/.†   (source)
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