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Palliate

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(pronounced pal-ee-ayt)  verb

Definition

1. to relieve or lessen the severity (of a disease) without actually curing or eliminating the underlying cause; ease or alleviate pain or other symptoms.  2. to subdue or moderate the intensity of; calm or pacify.  3. to mask or conceal the gravity of an infraction or transgression; make (an offense etc.) appear less serious through excuses and apologies; extenuate.

Other Forms

Palliative  (pronounced pal-ee-ay-tiv or pal-yuh-tiv)  adjective

Main Example

• Taking advantage of the record high unemployment and clamor for jobs, many companies these days try to palliate a controversial proposal or action--such as when they are seeking an exception to an environmental or other regulation that is clearly in the public's interest--by simply saying: "Oh, but our actions will create jobs!"

Workplace Examples

• Between you and me, the Toronto district office is the only one that consistently fails to deliver the monthly sales numbers by the deadline. I am just fed up with their excuses and palliating explanations.
• This time when I visited my 91-year-old Dad, who lives by himself in a faraway town, I asked several neighbors if they could make it a point to drop in on him once a week or so, even if for only 10 to 15 minutes at a time, to palliate his loneliness and boredom.

Other Examples

• somebody telling her fellow employees: "The way Sheila was smiling and joking during break this morning, one might get the impression that her cancer is gone. Not by any means! She looked good only because of the short-term, palliative actions taken by her doctors. Believe me, her prognosis is not encouraging."
• trying to rouse the spirits of his pessimistic employees, a manager saying: "Yes, we face an uphill road and I do not want to palliate the difficulties, but there is good reason for some optimism, and let me tell you why."
• a domestic cleaning woman turning the radio volume up to help palliate the tedium of cleaning
• during a court trial, a defense attorney making a case for a lighter sentence for his convicted client by furnishing a list of palliating circumstance
• some who voiced full-throated support for the invasion of Iraq now trying to palliate the extremely costly misadventure by saying: "Oh, but we got rid of Saddam!"

© 2012 V.J. Singal
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