placate
- 01 C1 Advanced
to make someone stop being angry by giving them what they want or saying something kind.
to appease or pacify an individual who is angry or hostile, often through concessions or conciliatory gestures.
Simple“The manager tried to placate the angry customer by offering a full refund.”
In context“The administration attempted to placate the protesting students by promising a formal review of the tuition structure, though many remained skeptical.”
UsageThis is a transitive verb that always requires a direct object, usually a person or a group.
Teacher's tipWhile the metadata suggests this word is archaic, it is actually quite common in formal modern English, especially in political or business contexts.
“He shoves a hell of a lot of jokes in along the way – from having to police his divorced mother’s suitor list to using football chat to placate angry men.”
“I blurted out an apology and ran off, leaving another waiter to placate her while I sobbed in the kitchen.”
First attested in the late 17ᵗʰ century; borrowed from Latin plācātus, perfect passive participle of plācō (“appease, placate”, literally “smooth, smoothen”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more), ultimately thought to be from Proto-Indo-European plāk- (“smooth, flat”), from pele- (“broad, flat, plain”). Related to Latin placeō (“appease”), Old English flōh (“flat stone, chip”). More at please.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.