conciliate
verb
William Taubman
Did you know?
Now here’s a people pleaser. The immediate source of conciliate is a form of the Latin verb conciliare, meaning "to assemble, unite, win over," and when conciliate was first used in the 16th century, the idea of winning over was key; it was used to mean "to gain something, such as goodwill or favor, by pleasing acts." Today, conciliate is mostly used in contexts where appease or reconcile is a more common choice, as in "a refusal to conciliate the dictator," and "efforts to conciliate the views of those on opposing sides." Like the word council, conciliate ultimately traces back to the Latin word concilium, meaning "assembly, council."
Synonyms
Examples of conciliate in a Sentence
Brady Dale, Axios, 13 Aug. 2024
Brazil and others have been trying to secure talks between the two sides, political rivals that have not conciliated in decades.
—Reuters, NBC News, 13 Aug. 2024
This hardly seems sustainable, for Peru, very weak militarily, had every interest in preventing a war between Chile and Bolivia, even apart from the stipulations of Article VIII of the treaty which bound her to seek to conciliate the belligerents.
—Edwin M. Borchard, Foreign Affairs, 7 Oct. 2011
The hope for this person is that officials from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) can mediate and conciliate this epic fight.
—Kim Masters, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 July 2023
Much as former President Barack Obama once courted congressional Republicans, Tromp sought to conciliate the conservative legislators.
—Daniel Golden, ProPublica, 4 July 2022
Biden’s team has absorbed, even invited, criticism from authoritarians whom Trump used to conciliate.
—Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, 25 Mar. 2021
Refusing either to conciliate or coerce Southern states rushing headlong into secession, Lincoln maintained...
—Harold Holzer, WSJ, 15 May 2020
Rather than jousting with citizen groups at zoning-board meetings, Mr. Traurig tried to conciliate them in advance.
—James R. Hagerty, WSJ, 27 July 2018
Dictionary Entries Near conciliate
Cite this Entry
“Conciliate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conciliate. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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conciliate
verb
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