peacefuladj.n.
/ˈpiːsf(ᵿ)l/, U.S. /ˈpisf(ə)l/ A. adj.† 3. Belonging or relating to a time or state of peace. Obsolete.
1. Inclined to or in favour of peace; amicable, pacific, placid; = peaceable adj. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > peace > pacific character or disposition > [adjective]
peaceable1340
peacefula1400
pacifical?c1500
pacific1582
pacificous1611
flag-furling1802
pacifistic1908
dovish1966
society > society and the community > dissent > absence of dissension or peace > [adjective] > peaceable
i-sibsumeOE
grithlyc1300
peaceable1340
peacefula1400
pacifical?c1500
pacific1582
pacificous1611
peaceable-minded1648
peaceably minded1648
pacal1656
peaceably disposed1772
unaggressive1862
inaggressive1878
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 17646 Paisful bi þi cuming hider.
a1400 Psalter (Vesp.) cxix. 6 in C. Horstmann Yorkshire Writers (1896) II. 258 With þa þat pais hated ai Was I paisfulle.
c1475 (?c1400) Apol. Lollard Doctr. (1842) 107 Snyb he þe idul, solace hem of litul hert, and be pesful to all.
a1500 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) cxix. 6 With thaim that hatid pese, pesful i was.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 3 (1623) ii. vi. 32 Good fortune bids vs pause, And smooth the frownes of War, with peacefull lookes. View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost x. 946 He..thus with peaceful words uprais'd her soon. View more context for this quotation
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 322 Yet let a Race untam'd, and haughty Foes, His peaceful Entrance with dire Arms oppose.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. v. ix. 196 He accompanied these Words with such rough Actions, that they soon got the better of Mr Blifil's peaceful Temper. View more context for this quotation
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth IV. 125 The Armadillo..; a peaceful harmless creature.
1816 W. Scott Antiquary II. i. 16 He was so good as to deposit me in a dry ditch—I hope yours is a more peaceful beast?
1843 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) xxvi. 315 He was not quarrelsome, though, like the sparrow; but peaceful, like the dove.
1889 ‘M. Twain’ Connecticut Yankee xxxiv. 446 We are but peaceful strangers..and traveling upon our own concerns.
1915 V. Woolf Voy. Out xxiii. 382 The dispute about Helen which had become rather sharp, ceased, and they became peaceful and friendly.
1964 J. A. M. Meerloo Hidden Communion iii. 62 My own rather peaceful Scottish terrier wanted to attack every enemy soldier during the Nazi occupation of Holland.
1994 Guardian 24 June ii. 17/3 All use the key word ‘fluffy’—being peaceful at all times when confronted.
2. Characterized by or full of peace; free from disturbance, commotion, or strife; undisturbed, untroubled; calm, quiet, tranquil.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > inaction > quietness or tranquillity > [adjective]
stillc1275
coyc1330
restful1340
quieta1382
peaceablec1384
peacefula1400
undisturbleda1400
somec1460
quietous1528
reposeda1533
unnoyed1543
calma1568
halcyon1570
calmya1586
quietsome1595
halcyonian1602
undisturbeda1610
halcedonian1611
tranquila1616
tranquillous1638
slumbering1645
halcydon1648
smooth1757
slumberous1765
stilly1776
sleeping1785
unfrenzied1805
Sabbath-like1824
unbustling1826
eddyless1862
restinga1865
pacific1865
Sabbatismal1881
society > society and the community > dissent > absence of dissension or peace > [adjective]
grithful?c1225
peacefula1400
restful?c1422
strifeless1621
unembroiled1759
a1400 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Hatton 12) in Eng. Writings (1931) 5 Druyd and stormy saules it bringes in tille clere and peesfulle lyf.
?a1475 (a1396) W. Hilton Scale of Perfection (Harl. 6579) i. xlviii. f. 33v (MED) Þou may in klennes of conscience fele þe homly and þe pesful presence of þat blissed man Ihesu Crist.
c1580 Sir P. Sidney tr. Psalmes David iv. vii I in peace and peacefull blisse Will lay me down and take my rest.
1645 J. Milton Il Penseroso in Poems 44 And may at last my weary age Find out the peacefull hermitage.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis vii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 402 That rouz'd the Tyrrhene Realm..And peaceful Italy involv'd in Arms.
1717 A. Pope Eloisa to Abelard in Wks. 427 E'er such a soul regains its peaceful state.
1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall II. xxiii. 398 The senses were gratified with harmonious sounds and aromatic odours; and the peaceful grove was consecrated to health and joy, to luxury and love.
1814 W. Wordsworth Excursion ix. 419 Called to such office by the peaceful sound Of Sabbath bells. View more context for this quotation
1859 C. Dickens Tale of Two Cities iii. xv. 253 They said of him, about the city that night, that it was the peacefullest man's face ever beheld there.
1884 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Huckleberry Finn xlii. 428 He'd been sleeping like that for ever so long, and looking better and peacefuller all the time, and ten to one he'd wake up in his right mind.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. x. [Wandering Rocks] 213 It was a peaceful day. The gentleman with the glasses..had finished explaining.
1970 J. Dickey Deliverance iv. 243 We've got a whole hospital... It's peaceful here... Nobody on glucose from a drunk smashup.
2001 K. Glowczewska tr. R. Kapuściński Shadow of Sun 272 A spacious, peaceful, unpopulated savannah, on which grow acacias and blackthorn bushes.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > peace > [adjective]
peacefulc1595
togated1634
pacific1667
togate1851
peacetime1862
c1595 Countess of Pembroke Psalme lxxii. 22 in Coll. Wks. (1998) II. 90 During his rule..shall..peacefull plenty ioine with plenteous peace.
1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida i. iii. 105 Peacefull commerce from deuidable shores. View more context for this quotation
1741 C. Middleton Hist. Life Cicero I. i. 18 Those who applied themselves to the peacefull studies, and the management of civil affairs.
1863 M. Howitt tr. F. Bremer Greece & Greeks II. xiv. 109 An unarmed population, accustomed only to peaceful occupations.
4. Not violating or infringing peace; not employing force or violence; non-violent; esp. designating a means or method of effecting some end for which force, violence, or war is an alternative or more obvious means.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > peace > [adjective] > peaceful (of means)
pacific1788
peaceful1876
1876 G. Howell Handy-bk. Labour Laws (ed. 2) ii. 29 Peaceful picketing is no longer prohibited, for, although the Government refused..to legalise ‘peaceful persuasion’, yet it was distinctly declared that it was legal under the Act.
1903 E. Grey in Hansard Commons 18 Feb. 245 Russia seems undoubtedly..to be carrying on a process of absorption in Persia, and it is being done by what, I think, a French writer has called peaceful penetration.
1950 Chambers's Encycl. XIII. 726/1 The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act..in effect conceded the right to strike and reinstated peaceful picketing in a modified form.
1961 U.S. Peace Corps Fact Bk. 22 If it is decided to make a small shift which may be required from military aid or special assistance funds, in order to carry out the purposes of the Mutual Security Act through this new peaceful program, this will be a hopeful sign to the world.
2003 Business Day (S. Afr.) (Nexis) 20 Nov. 10 It is not long since one of our students was murdered in a police assault during a peaceful protest against the exclusion of poor students from university education.
B. n.
With plural agreement. With the. Peaceful or peaceable people as a class.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > dissent > absence of dissension or peace > [noun] > peaceable person
peaceable1340
peaceful1526
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. ev Blessed be the peacefull, for they shall be called the chyldre of god.
1766 H. Brooke Fool of Quality I. vii. 288 The..robberies, massacres, and assassinations, that the violent machinate against the peaceful.
a1894 O. W. Holmes Compl. Poet. Wks. (1912) 120 When once their slumbering passions burn, The peaceful are the strong!
1992 F. R. P. Akehurst tr. P. de Beaumanoir Coutumes de Beauvaisis i. 18 It is certainly part of a bailli's duties to frighten and control the quarrelsome, so that the peaceful may live in peace.
Compounds
C1.
peaceful-looking adj.
ΚΠ
1838 J. Kenyon Poems 72 Smothered hates could now find seemlier vent, And stab with peaceful-looking instrument.
1987 R. A. Thompson & L. S. Thompson Egoshell 35 The sight of our peaceful-looking, beautiful blue-and-white-marbled planet from space.
C2.
peaceful assembly n. the lawful gathering of people at a meeting, demonstration, etc., to discuss or express their views in a peaceable fashion; a gathering of this type.Typically used in the context of a person's rights, esp. in phrases such as right to peaceful assembly and freedom of peaceful assembly, and esp. with reference to non-violent public protest.
ΚΠ
1833 Pilot 25 Jan. They met in peaceful assembly to enumerate their grievances, and respectfully implore redress.
1869 Morning Post 6 July 5/6 A firm determination to resist all attempts to violate the right of peaceful assembly and of free discussion.
1930 Washington Post 4 Dec. 6/7 This was a peaceful assembly in exercise of the fundamental constitutional guarantee.
1986 Ironwood (Mich.) Daily Globe 17 Dec. 14/2 The First Amendment guarantee of freedom of peaceful assembly should allow a group like his to use public facilities for an open meeting.
2001 Waunakee (Wisconsin) Tribune 20 Sept. 9/3 The officer contacted the picketers and reminded them of their perimeters in a peaceful assembly.
2016 M. Z. Cohen & C. Muhamad-Brandner in G. Morgan & S. Pointing Global Islamophobia i. 16 Migrant populations have been denied the rights that German citizens enjoy, including the right to peaceful assembly.
peaceful coexistence n. (a policy of) mutual toleration between states, groups, etc., having different beliefs, ideologies or outlooks (frequently historical with reference to the foreign policy of the Soviet Union towards the countries of the capitalist West); also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > peace > [noun] > involving specific nations
Roman peace1610
Pax Romana1853
peaceful coexistence1857
Pax Britannica1871
Pax Americana1894
Pax Sovietica1945
Pax Communistica1946
1857 P. Schaff Germany xvii. 162 A separation of the State and School from the Church, not in the American sense of a peaceful co-existence of the spiritual and temporal powers, but in the infidel sense of an emancipation of the German people from Christianity.
1920 N.Y. Evening Jrnl. 18 Feb. in C. Hunt Guide to Communist Jargon (1957) 27 [Interview with Lenin] Our plans in Asia? The same as in Europe: peaceful coexistence with the peoples, with the workers and peasants of all nations.
1959 Listener 26 Mar. 539/2 Both the Communist Party and the Church [in Poland] benefit immensely from the unprecedented type of peaceful coexistence they have worked out together.
1977 Lancet 29 Oct. 903/2 Many microorganisms have been accused; so far, none have fulfilled Koch's postulates and some are known to live in peaceful coexistence with the healthy gut.
2003 Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. (Nexis) 1 Nov. a19 China sealed an amity treaty with ASEAN, promoting political consultation and peaceful coexistence.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.a1400