What's the difference between mollify and placate?

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.

Placate


Definition:

  • (n.) Same as Placard, 4 & 5.
  • (v. t.) To appease; to pacify; to concilate.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) His speech at the United Nations has been seen as a move to placate growing discontents in Palestinian society.
  • (2) Given a choice between placating the Freedom Caucus and placating Donald Trump, Ryan is wisely choosing self-preservation with the former.
  • (3) BT's £12.5bn EE takeover gets green light Read more The attempt to placate frustrated customers resulted in BT creating 1,000 jobs at UK call centres last year ; it plans double that number by April 2017.
  • (4) In the shorter term, however, the people who had to be placated were the international debt markets.
  • (5) David Cameron's announcement at the weekend to rush through the next stage of Help to Buy was also aimed at placating the middle classes, despite the risk of creating another housing bubble.
  • (6) Trinity Mirror attempted to placate investors in April with a new pay deal for Bailey that reduced her remuneration by about £500,000, but that failed to satisfy some major shareholders.
  • (7) In recent weeks, repeated efforts had been made to pare down and modify the legislation to placate the rebellious conservatives in the party.
  • (8) As it has edged ever closer to power, the party has launched a concerted campaign to reassure and placate creditors of its policies and intent.
  • (9) The IEA said the final budget could spiral further because of several factors, including: changing routes and carrying out more tunnelling to placate opposition groups; compensation for towns and cities bypassed by the line; and regeneration grants awarded along the line.
  • (10) However, costs such as extra tunnelling to placate opponents in London and the Chilterns have already meant extra money has been factored in.
  • (11) For the three million Greeks now facing poverty, placating creditors means much less than erasing the painful conditions attached to its bailouts.
  • (12) Europe's 17 single currency governments have agreed to deliver €500bn (£418bn) in bailout funds in the hope of erecting a firewall strong enough to contain the sovereign debt crisis, placate the markets and encourage non-eurozone International Monetary Fund (IMF) members to commit a similar sum to emergency reserves.
  • (13) The youths drifted away, peaceful but not placated.
  • (14) The strategy for the NSA and its Washington defenders for managing these changes is now clear: advocate their own largely meaningless reform to placate this growing sentiment while doing nothing to actually rein in the NSA's power.
  • (15) Nobody tells you how to placate the angry parents who think they’ve encountered the world’s frailest child-snatcher.
  • (16) He can't placate these protests as easily as he could when the JMP [the opposition coaliation] were leading them."
  • (17) If there is confusion on this basic point, no foreign government will trust that when a president purports to speak for our country he actually does.” Blinken attempted to placate several angry representatives who demanded Congress have more authority in the negotiations, saying the administration has “more than 200 meetings, calls, [and] briefings” with elected officials regarding the talks.
  • (18) King said a one-off increase, to placate critics in the financial markets, would be a "futile gesture"; but Sentance warned that the Bank would find itself "playing catch-up" if it failed to tighten policy rapidly.
  • (19) Which is why every family should have at least one … Facebook Twitter Pinterest Placator or Curmudgeon?
  • (20) In-tray Cutting the £163bn deficit and the debt mountain without hurting the economic recovery, the poor or British enterprise; sorting out bank regulation – both the rules and the structure; placating the City, which does not like his plan to abolish the Financial Services Authority.