palliation

American  

[pal-ee-ey-shuhn] / ˌpæl iˈeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of relieving a patient’s suffering without curing the disease that is causing it.

   The Academy provides authoritative, evidence-based advice to support policy for the prevention, management, and palliation of cancer.

2. the act of mitigating or concealing the gravity of an offense by excuses, apologies, etc..

   No matter how events are viewed, there is no palliation for such crimes as the recent massacre of an entire family.

---

Other Word Forms

• nonpalliation noun

Etymology

Origin of palliation

First recorded in 1400–50, for a previous sense; palliat(e) ( def. ) + -ion ( def. )

Example Sentences

Marcus’s father was offered hospice care, a form of palliation that is generally reserved for people with a life expectancy of six months or less, who are no longer pursuing “curative” treatments.

From The New Yorker

Bunting himself looked down on annotations: “Notes are a confession of failure, not a palliation of it,” he wrote, introducing the few notes to his 1968 “Collected Poems.”

From The New Yorker

For them, a shift in that goal, toward palliation, occurs only when the leukemia has proven to be dogged in its resistance to our assaults.

From New York Times

This recognition allows patients to halt toxic treatment, opt for effective palliation and articulate their goals for the end of life.

From The Guardian

But the world has always brimmed with bad songs, and worse poems, that are born of authentic pain; sincerity of feeling, in art, guarantees nothing but the passing palliation of the feeler.

From The New Yorker