palliate

tr.v., -at·ed, -at·ing, -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.

[Middle English palliaten, from Late Latin palliāre, palliāt-, to cloak, palliate, from Latin pallium, cloak.]

palliation pal'li·a'tion n.
palliator pal'li·a'tor n.

SYNONYMS   palliate, extenuate, gloss, gloze, whitewash. These verbs mean to cause a fault or offense to seem less grave or less reprehensible: palliate a crime; couldn't extenuate the malfeasance; glossing over an unethical transaction; glozing sins and iniquities; whitewashed official complicity in political extortion. See also synonyms at relieve.

(PAL-ee-ayt)

verb tr.
1. To ease the symptoms of a problem without fixing its cause.
2. To make an offense appear less severe by excuses or apologies; extenuate.

Etymology
From Latin palliare (to cover), from pallium (cloak)

Usage
"When success came it palliated his sense of loss for a while." — Frank Carrigan; John Lennon: The Life; Brisbane Times (Australia); Jan 9, 2009.

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verb

1. To conceal or make light of a fault or offense: explain away, extenuate, gloss over, gloze (over), sleek over, whitewash. See show/hide.
2. To make less severe or more bearable: allay, alleviate, assuage, comfort, ease, lessen, lighten², mitigate, relieve. See increase/decrease.

v

Definition: gloss over; cover up
Antonyms: accuse, blame, condemn

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(pal'ē-āt)
v

To reduce the severity of.

To relieve clinical signs.

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - dække over, besmykke, lindre

Nederlands (Dutch)
verzachten, verbloemen

Français (French)
v. tr. - pallier

Deutsch (German)
v. - lindern, beschönigen, entschuldigen

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - απαλύνω, μετριάζω, καταπραϋνω, ανακουφίζω

Italiano (Italian)
palliare, attenuare, lenire, mitigare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - paliar

Русский (Russian)
облегчать, смягчать

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - paliar, mitigar

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - tillfälligt lindra, släta över

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
缓和, 辩解, 减轻, 掩饰

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 緩和, 辯解, 減輕, 掩飾

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 누그러지게 하다, 변명하다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 一時的に和らげる, 言い繕う, 言いわけとなる, 和らげる

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يلطف, يسكن الألم, يبرر جزئيا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮שיכך, הקל על מחלה או עונש‬

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