palliate

American  

[pal-ee-ayt] / 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

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Etymology

Origin of palliate

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

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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

Even this throwing about of brushes seems to me to have done little or nothing to palliate his poor human preoccupation with the toilette.

From The Sea Lady by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

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

Such external treatment only palliates the suffering for a little while without removing the disordered vital force that gave origin to its appearance.

From Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects by Henry Newell Guernsey

An irresistible motive, it is forcibly said, palliates or takes away guilt; no one can blame himself for yielding to necessity, and no one can properly be punished for what he could not have prevented.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 7 "Equation" to "Ethics" by Various

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

From Shakspere and Montaigne by Jacob Feis

Hazelgrove argued "not all pain can be palliated" as she spoke in favour of the bill.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

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

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

With no palliating wage increases, labor grows daily surlier.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

He may well have wished to add to this glowing denial of his own insinuations some palliating personal explanation.

From The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume I (of 2) by Florence A. Thomas Marshall

And so she grew up; her extreme beauty palliating to the household all her little willful faults, and the admiration she excited filling the very crevices of her heart.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine No. XVI.?September, 1851?Vol. III. by Various

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