Palliate
/ˈpæliˌeɪt/
verbC1
Definition
To palliate something means to reduce its bad effects or make it feel less serious, especially pain or a difficult situation. It does not mean to cure or fix the problem completely, but to help make it more comfortable or less painful.
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See It in Action
To reduce pain or suffering without curing the cause
- •The doctor gave her medicine to palliate the pain after surgery.
- •Palliative care helps patients feel more comfortable when they have serious illnesses.
- •The treatment is meant to palliate symptoms, not to cure the disease.
To make a problem or bad situation seem less serious or easier to accept
- •He tried to palliate his mistake by explaining what happened.
- •The politician's speech was meant to palliate public anger.
- •They used excuses to palliate the problem, but it still remained.
Make It Stick
- ✓Think of "palliate" like "help," but more specific—it helps reduce pain or problems without fixing them fully.
- ✓Picture putting a soft cloth over a small cut to stop the pain, but the cut is still there underneath.
- ✓It's the feeling when a medicine eases your headache but doesn't make it go away completely.
- ✓Sounds like "PAL-lee-ate" → imagine a "pal" (friend) who helps you feel better when you are hurt.
- ✓Think of doctors giving medicine to reduce pain, not to cure the illness right away.
- ✓NOT like "cure" (which removes the problem), "palliate" only makes symptoms less bad.
- ✓NOT like "ignore" (which means to not pay attention), palliate means actively helping to reduce pain or trouble.
- ✓NOT like "fix" (which solves the problem), palliate only eases the problem for now.
Try Other Words
- •Alleviate: to make pain or problems less severe (Use when the focus is on reducing difficulty or pain, often in health or emotional contexts)
- •Relieve: to remove or reduce pain or stress (Use when something fully or partially removes discomfort)
- •Soothe: to calm or make less painful (Use mainly for emotional comfort or minor physical pain)
- •Mitigate: to make harm or damage less serious (Use in formal or technical contexts, often for problems or risks)
Unboxing
- •Prefix: "pal-" (no clear prefix; root word is "palliate")
- •Root: from Latin "palliare" meaning "to cloak or cover" (like covering a problem to hide or reduce its effect)
- •Suffix: "-ate" (makes it a verb, meaning to do or cause)
- •Etymology: Comes from Latin "pallium," meaning cloak or covering, showing the idea of covering or hiding pain or problems
- •Historical development: Used since the 1600s in English to mean covering up or easing pain or problems without curing
- •Modern usage: Mainly used in medicine (palliative care) and formal speech about reducing bad effects without fixing the cause
Reflect & Connect
•How can palliation be helpful even if it doesn't solve the main problem?
•Can you think of situations in daily life where you might palliate a problem instead of fixing it?
Fill in the blanks
1.Doctors often palliate pain ___ curing the illness completely.
2.When someone is very sick, palliative care helps ___ their discomfort.
3.He tried to palliate his mistake by ___ an explanation, but it did not fix the problem.
4.Palliate is different from cure because it only ___ symptoms, not the cause.
5.Medicines can palliate pain ___ making the patient feel better temporarily.
6.She used kind words to palliate the ___ feelings caused by the bad news.
7.We can palliate some problems by ___ their effects, even if we can't solve them fully.