Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use placate in a sentence

15 example sentences · verb, adjective

Placate means to calm; to bring peace to; to influence someone who was furious to the point that they become content or at least no longer irate. Example: “To-day a deity who should require bleeding sacrifices to placate him would be too sanguinary to be taken seriously.”

Examples of placate by meaning

verbTo calm; to bring peace to; to influence someone who was furious to the point that they become content or at least no...

  • To-day a deity who should require bleeding sacrifices to placate him would be too sanguinary to be taken seriously.1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co....
  • They turned their shoulders to her most savage slashes, and with wagging tails and mincing steps strove to placate her wrath.1906 May–October, Jack London, White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC
  • He sought to placate her; he urged his friendly intentions, and craned his neck to have a look at Teeka’s balu; but the she-ape was not to be persuaded that he meant other than harm to her little one.1916, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 3, in Jungle Tales of Tarzan, A. C. McClurg

More sentences with placate

  • Never mind that this wouldn’t placate the head-bangers on the right either.”2023 November 19, Rajeev Syal, “Sunak could block Human Rights Act to force through Rwanda asylum plan”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry one nationer
  • Axl took this as a back-handed compliment and was momentarily placated.2008, Mick Wall, W.A.R.: The Unauthorized Biography of William Axl Rose, →ISBN, page 121. From the entry back-handed
  • The Wisconsin Republicans sought to placate the Germans by nominating the forty-eighter Karl Roeser as state treasurer.2001, Frank Trommler, Elliott Shore, editors, The German-American Encounter […] , Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 27. From the entry forty-eighter
  • As I stand to address them they take a fearful step backwards with their hands outstretched in placating gestures.2015, Alain Robert, With Bare Hands, Maverick Publishing Limited. From the entry backwards
  • For weeks, the White House, the Pentagon and Senate Democrats have been working overtime to cajole, convince and placate Republicans.2010 August 4, Michael Scherer, “NonSTARTer? Obama's Troubled Nuclear Treaty”, in Time. From the entry cajole
  • The misweave in the kilim which placates Allah.2001, Mameve Medwed, Mail. From the entry misweave
  • Think of the hundreds of imberb boys and impubert girls it had needed to placate the Cretan minotaur!1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 972. From the entry imberb
  • The move is obviously pure piffle: a dumbshow designed to placate (or at least entertain) the conservative base while distracting and antagonising rivals.2022 May 31, James Vincent, “Boris Johnson’s move to bring back imperial units is pure piffle – and simply unfathomable”, in The Guardian. From the entry piffle
  • The real purpose of this exorbitant barrel of pigmeat is to placate West Virginia politicians who complain their state doesn't get enough pork.1995 September, George Reigel, “Updates”, in Field & Stream. From the entry pigmeat
  • Across Taiwan, households prepared offerings of food, alcohol, candles, flowers, washbowls and towels, in prayer for their ancestors and gods, and to placate the hungry ghosts.2021 August 30, Helen Davidson, Chi-hui Lin, “‘Not open for humans’: Covid changes east Asia’s Ghost Month but free spirits remain”, in…. From the entry hungry ghost
  • It is not yet clear whether Mr Dudley and his team are seriously considering a break-up or merely showing willing to placate investors clamouring for more value.2011 July 27, Rowena Mason, “BP 'in bits' worth up to £90bn more”, in Daily Telegraph, London. From the entry show willing
  • But critics say Bernstein and McLean simply passed the buck to the attorney general in order to placate the small group of fundamentalist Christians who had been lobbying them.1990 February 4, David Morris, “Attorney General Sides With Texas Gay Groups”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 3. From the entry pass the buck

Meaning of placate

  1. verb To calm; to bring peace to; to influence someone who was furious to the point that they become content or at least no longer irate.
  2. adjective Placid, peaceful.

Full definition of placate

Questions about placate in a sentence

How do you use placate in a sentence?
Placate is used as a verb and adjective. For example: “To-day a deity who should require bleeding sacrifices to placate him would be too sanguinary to be taken seriously.”
What is a short sentence with placate?
“The misweave in the kilim which placates Allah.”
What does placate mean?
Placate means to calm; to bring peace to; to influence someone who was furious to the point that they become content or at least no longer irate.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: placate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use placate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/placate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.