palliate

To palliate is to make something less painful or unpleasant, or to calm fears.

(verb)

  1. When a medication lessens your pain after surgery or the unpleasant symptoms of a disease, these are examples of when you palliate with medication.
  2. When a police chief calls a press conference and assures the citizens that the robber has been arrested, this is an example of when you palliate fears.

YourDictionary definition and usage example. Copyright © 2013 by LoveToKnow Corp.

See palliate in Webster's New World College Dictionary

transitive verb palliated, palliating

  1. to lessen the pain or severity of without actually curing; alleviate; ease
  2. to make appear less serious or offensive; excuse; extenuate

Origin: < pp. of LL palliare, to conceal, cloak, back-form. < L palliatus, cloaked < pallium, a cloak

Related Forms:

See palliate in American Heritage Dictionary 4

transitive verb pal·li·at·ed, pal·li·at·ing, pal·li·ates
  1. To make (an offense or crime) seem less serious; extenuate.
  2. To make less severe or intense; mitigate: tried unsuccessfully to palliate the widespread discontent.
  3. To relieve the symptoms of a disease or disorder.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English palliaten

Origin: , from Late Latin palliāre, palliāt-, to cloak, palliate

Origin: , from Latin pallium, cloak

.

Related Forms:

  • palˌli·aˈtion noun
  • palˈli·aˌtor noun

Learn more about palliate

link/cite print suggestion box