as in to appease
to lessen the anger or agitation of
attempted to placate the screaming child by offering him a cookie
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Recent Examples of placate
Since 2013, the Teatro Real has been led by the Catalan impresario Joan Matabosch, who has a flair for balancing progressive ideas against conservative tastes while placating political overseers.
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Alex Ross, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025
Reagan's expression of glee was no doubt due to the fact that this encounter went markedly better than his first with a turkey, when the bird went wild on him, fluttering around madly until handlers could placate it.
—Alex Heigl, PEOPLE, 25 Nov. 2025
Ultimately, assuming Democrats’ goal is to win the 2028 election and not merely placate their progressive base, Shapiro is the sort of candidate who could pose a genuine and formidable threat to Vance or any other Republican.
—Douglas Schoen, Oc Register, 23 Nov. 2025
In 2018, Masahiro Sakurai made the biggest Smash yet, as the title suggests, taking years of post-release development and placating a fanbase that had hulking expectations, ending up with the third best selling game on Nintendo Switch.
—Ryan Gaur, Rolling Stone, 19 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for placate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for placate
appease
Verb
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To appease conservatives, GOP leaders agreed to separate the Commerce, Justice and science portion from the other two bills.—
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The country is now being led by the former Vice-President, Delcy Rodríguez, who is trying to appease Trump and fend off internal challenges, as our foreign correspondent Jon Lee Anderson explains on the latest episode of the Political Scene podcast.—
Cite this Entry
“Placate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/placate. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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