What's the difference between mollify and pacify?

Mollify


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To soften; to make tender; to reduce the hardness, harshness, or asperity of; to qualify; as, to mollify the ground.
  • (v. t.) To assuage, as pain or irritation, to appease, as excited feeling or passion; to pacify; to calm.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "On the contrary, they often serve to inflame rather than mollify the feelings of those involved."
  • (2) The government has promised to pay for the treatment costs of the victims, but parents are unlikely to be easily mollified.
  • (3) Randomized studies, attempting to clarify the role of combined azathioprine and prednisone therapy versus prednisone alone in severe systemic lupus erythematosus have sustained rather than mollified a clinical controversy.
  • (4) All the evidence is that, in Scotland at least, had Corbyn been in charge at the time of the election, even the time of last year’s referendum, Labour’s meltdown may have been substantially mollified.
  • (5) The Department for Transport unveiled several tweaks to the first stage of the HS2 route to mollify opponents in the wealthy commuter belt north and west of London.
  • (6) The city's Communist Party chief Tang Jun and mayor Li Wancai attempted to mollify the crowd with a promise to move the polluting project out of the city," according to the Xinhua news agency.
  • (7) The next time you hear mollifying words from Rudd that our rising debt levels are at reasonable levels compared to other countries, think about how Britons were lulled into the financial danger zone and ask yourself: are we on the same trajectory?
  • (8) What is now known, thanks to the Leveson process, is that James Murdoch was considerably mollified at the time.
  • (9) In a bid to mollify critics, Obama said: "We will never undertake this research lightly.
  • (10) This seems like a statement designed simply to mollify concerned backbenchers but lacking the substance to actually protect the countryside from fracking pollution.” Martin Harper, RSPB’s conservation director, said: “We are very pleased the government has indicated it intends to ban fracking in England’s best places for wildlife, Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
  • (11) On the contrary they often serve to inflame rather than mollify the feelings of those involved."
  • (12) He thinks, too, that Downing Street's recent concerns over the children's services agenda - its perceived lack of measurable outcomes and its feared drag on academic attainment - have been mollified.
  • (13) I hope you understand.” Supporters – overwhelmingly pro-Federer, as usual – were mollified to an extent that Andy Murray , who suffered an overwhelming defeat by Federer in the final qualifying match, would step in to play a “pro set” of first to eight games against Djokovic, as well as a doubles match, partnering John McEnroe against Tim Henman and Pat Cash.
  • (14) But, apparently mollified by Gove's comments, Wilshaw put out a fresh statement on Sunday night, saying: "I have talked to the secretary of state today and I know that he is 100% supportive of my leadership.
  • (15) His reasons were the sheer scale of emissions from China’s coal-fuelled factories, and a need to mollify American public opinion.
  • (16) The speech appeared to be an attempt to rally his Islamist support base, with little to mollify the millions who marched for his removal in July.
  • (17) The investigations into Mubarak's sons are expected to mollify the opposition.
  • (18) Corbyn faces tension between assuring supporters that the policy direction will change and the need to mollify some frontbenchers who regard international issues, such as the UK-US relationship, as a principle they cannot compromise on.
  • (19) Nor were they mollified by his refusal to underwrite their future should any of them be convicted.
  • (20) His appointment could mollify Independent journalists worried that the potential appointment of Liddle could overturn the paper's liberal values.

Pacify


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make to be at peace; to appease; to calm; to still; to quiet; to allay the agitation, excitement, or resentment of; to tranquillize; as, to pacify a man when angry; to pacify pride, appetite, or importunity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) However, it is easier for them to cope with anxiety because premedication pacifies the patients, whereas each of the dependent variables, such as apprehension, is influenced differently.
  • (2) The present study investigated the way that sucking of a pacifier influences gastric secretory and motor functions in connection with tube feeding.
  • (3) While it’s too early to suppose that President Trump’s attitude won’t change, given his unpredictability, the more emollient tone does appear to be pacifying markets for now.” Analysts also pointed to another reason for the strength in US markets.
  • (4) To this, add any exposure resulting from pacifier use or from in vivo nitrosation of precursors.
  • (5) Calves with access to pacifiers sucked other objects more than calves without pacifiers.
  • (6) The prime minister is hoping that negotiations with Brussels will deliver substantial concessions he hopes will pacify Eurosceptics but the former chancellor dismissed the idea of securing any significant reforms from Brussels.
  • (7) Users of orthodontic pacifiers had statistically significantly greater overjets, and there was a significantly higher proportion of subjects with open bite in the conventional pacifier group.
  • (8) Previous austerity measures announced during the socialists' short term in office had failed to pacify markets.
  • (9) When 16 types of baby-bottle nipples and children's pacifiers were tested recently, relatively high levels of nitramines, nitrosamines, and nitrosatable precursors were found.
  • (10) Duncan Smith claims: "Too often for those locked in the benefits system, that process of making responsible and positive choices has been skewed – money paid out to pacify them regardless, with no incentive to aspire for a better life.
  • (11) Memorable examples include his drinking bout with Professor Henry Louis Gates' arresting officer, Sgt Crowley, or his chugging a few bottles while awkwardly bowling to pacify nervous, middle-class white voters in Pennsylvania during the primaries.
  • (12) In the field Experiment B, nursing staff provided infants with a standard pacifier during alternate intervals in a sequence of four interfeed intervals spanning 12 hr.
  • (13) Treatment infants were offered a pacifier during and following every tube feeding; control infants received routine care.
  • (14) Pacifiers or rest were given for 5 minutes following routine caregiving and before each of the first 16 bottle feedings.
  • (15) But, with some diplomatic cover from China, the Sri Lankan regime emerged to claim to have pacified its island.
  • (16) But the pacified favelas have had slow progress in health, housing, education and business development — all of which were supposed to follow rapidly after the return of the authorities.
  • (17) The US fought two fierce and costly battles in Falluja in 2004 and lost almost 200 soldiers without pacifying the rebellious city.
  • (18) Children with pacifier attachments, on the other hand, were less often rated as securely attached and were more likely to show changes in security classification between 12 and 30 months.
  • (19) Two typical cases are presented in which the prolonged use of nursing bottle at bedtime and the use of pacifiers dipped into honey are responsible for the development of multi-caries.
  • (20) Effective strategies to care for these infants included recognizing states and cues, swaddling, use of pacifier, waking to eat, and smaller feedings.