makepeace

See also: Makepeace, make peace, and make-peace

English

Alternative forms

• make-peace

Etymology

From make +‎ peace.

Noun

makepeace (plural makepeaces)

1. (rare) A peacemaker; one who reconciles persons at variance with one another; a composer of strife; an adjuster of differences.
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, act 1, scene 1:

     To be a make-peace shall become my age / Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage.

2. (obsolete) A stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for corporal punishment.
   • 1657, William Coles, chapter CCCXX, in Adam in Eden: Or, Natures Paradiſe‎^[1], page 594:

     The civill uſes whereunto the Birch-tree ſerveth are many, as for the puniſhment of Children both at home and at School, for it hath an admirable influence upon them, to quiet them when they are out of Order, and therefore ſome call it Make-peace: The old Roman Magiſirates had it born in bundles before them, as an Enſigne, and Inſtrument of Juſtice to be executed upon petty Offenders.

Synonyms

• (stick, rod or bundle of twigs): birch, switch