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peace offering

Other forms: peace offerings

If you try to smooth things over with someone by giving them a gift, you can call it a peace offering. After fighting with your brother, you might take him out for ice cream as a peace offering.

An attempt to pacify or mollify a heated situation sometimes includes a kind gesture or even a present — a peace offering. When you hurt someone's feelings or offend them, a peace offering can go a long way toward burying the hatchet. The phrase originally had a religious meaning and is found in the Hebrew Bible, where it refers to a gift of thanks offered to God.

Definitions of peace offering
  1. noun
    something offered to an adversary in the hope of obtaining peace
    synonyms: olive branch
    see moresee less
    type of:
    offer, offering
    something offered (as a proposal or bid)
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