palliate

American  

[pal-ee-eyt] / ˈpæl iˌeɪt /

verb (used with object)

palliates, present (3rd person singular) palliated, past participle, past palliating present participle

1. to relieve or lessen without curing; mitigate; alleviate.

2. to try to mitigate or conceal the gravity of (an offense) by excuses, apologies, etc.; extenuate.

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palliate British  

/ ˈpælɪˌeɪt /

verb

1. to lessen the severity of (pain, disease, etc) without curing or removing; alleviate; mitigate

2. to cause (an offence) to seem less serious by concealing evidence; extenuate

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• palliation
  noun
• palliator
  noun
• unpalliated
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• palliating
  present
• palliated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• palliate
  simple
• palliates
  simple
• have palliated
  perfect
• has palliated
  perfect
• am palliating
  progressive
• are palliating
  progressive
• is palliating
  progressive
• have been palliating
  perfect progressive
• has been palliating
  perfect progressive

Past

• palliated
  simple
• had palliated
  perfect
• was palliating
  progressive
• were palliating
  progressive
• had been palliating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will palliate
  simple
• will have palliated
  perfect
• will be palliating
  progressive
• will have been palliating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of palliate

First recorded in 1540–50, palliate is from the Late Latin word palliātus cloaked, covered. See pallium, -ate ¹

Explanation

When you palliate something, you try to make something less bad: “City leaders tried to palliate effects of the trash haulers' strike by distributing extra large garbage cans with tight-fitting lids.” Palliate is the word to use when you want to make something feel or seem better. Palliate doesn’t mean “cure” or “solve.” Instead, something that palliates relieves the symptoms or consequences of something, without addressing the underlying cause. Your dentist might give you pain-killing drugs to palliate the discomfort caused by an impacted molar, but that molar is still there, waiting to cause more trouble.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

palliate palliates palliated palliating

The easing of lockdown restrictions coincides with preparations by the cash-strapped Caribbean island nation for its tourist high season, which it hopes will bring much-needed dollars to palliate a dire economic crisis.

From Reuters ● Sep. 24, 2021

His role, he said, was “not to ‘sell’ the U.S.A. but to ‘explain’ it, not to palliate its blemishes but to contextualize them.”

From New York Times ● May 3, 2016

Results palliate everything, but without them significant fault lines are exposed.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 2, 2015

Ultimately, biomedical research offers no value to the public if our work does not result in the availability of safe and effective interventions to cure, treat, palliate, diagnose, and prevent disease.

From Science Magazine ● Sep. 4, 2013

Had he not jeered at Margu�rite, and endeavored to palliate his offense by repeating the absurd tittle-tattle to the man who had kicked him out of the house?

From The House 'Round the Corner by Tracy, Louis

Counting it no doubt palliates if not deadens any reservations.

From New York Times ● Nov. 7, 2017

But the art that palliates Humbert’s misery has not notably relieved the distress of reviewers, most of whom have felt obliged to ask themselves, “Why has the author done this horrid thing?”

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 1, 1958

He palliates his ignorance by pretending that his taste lies another way.

From ?sop's Fables, Embellished with One Hundred and Eleven Emblematical Devices. by ?sop

The cruel deed he has done, he palliates with the remark that lovingkindness has forced him to it.

From Shakspere and Montaigne by Feis, Jacob

Abstaining from animal food palliates, when it does not cure, all constitutional diseases.

From Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages Including a System of Vegetable Cookery by Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)

The calls palliated some of Collins’s guilt, but not all of it.

From The New Yorker ● May 20, 2019

Brogan: So you’ve done this, you’ve obliterated the aneurysm, removed or palliated the tumor, what’s next?

From Slate ● Apr. 27, 2017

Charm and high purposes palliated the pure ether of his arrogance.

From US News ● Apr. 9, 2015

Only his affection for a girl who could write palliated his father's incredulous discomfiture.

From Time Magazine Archive

The inconvenience of this system in record-keeping is palliated by various devices, for instance reference to well-known events, reigns of kings, dynasties, local lords, etc.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

On the one hand, if he finds significant results, it could lead to groundbreaking methods for palliating some of the world’s problems.

From Scientific American ● May 18, 2011

The eventual answer, however, lies not in palliating deprivation but in enabling the young to escape the self-regenerating cycle that has trapped their parents in poverty.

From Time Magazine Archive

With no palliating wage increases, labor grows daily surlier.

From Time Magazine Archive

One who offers an apology, admits himself to have been, at least apparently, in the wrong, but brings forward some palliating circumstance, or tenders a frank acknowledgment, by way of reparation.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah

A fault was a fault; telling a falsehood was telling a falsehood; and he made no allowance for the excuses or "palliating circumstances" there might be to consider.

From Carrots: Just a Little Boy by Molesworth, Mrs.