ALLEVIATE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Alleviate

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/əlˈiviˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Alleviate v. t. (past & past part. alleviated; pres. part. alleviating)

To lighten or lessen the force or weight of. (Obs.) "Should no others join capable to alleviate the expense." "Those large bladders... conduce much to the alleviating of the body (of flying birds)."

To lighten or lessen (physical or mental troubles); to mitigate, or make easier to be endured; as, to alleviate sorrow, pain, care, etc.; opposed to aggravate. "The calamity of the want of the sense of hearing is much alleviated by giving the use of letters."

To extenuate; to palliate. (R.) "He alleviates his fault by an excuse."

Synonyms: To lessen; diminish; soften; mitigate; assuage; abate; relieve; nullify; allay. To Alleviate, Mitigate, Assuage, Allay. These words have in common the idea of relief from some painful state; and being all figurative, they differ in their application, according to the image under which this idea is presented. Alleviate supposes a load which is lightened or taken off; as, to alleviate one's cares. Mitigate supposes something fierce which is made mild; as, to mitigate one's anguish. Assuage supposes something violent which is quieted; as, to assuage one's sorrow. Allay supposes something previously excited, but now brought down; as, to allay one's suffering or one's thirst. To alleviate the distresses of life; to mitigate the fierceness of passion or the violence of grief; to assuage angry feeling; to allay wounded sensibility.

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Etymology of 'Alleviate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Alleviate" Quotes from Famous Books

... thought, in his heart, that this was probably only one of those things which good-natured owners say to their servants, to alleviate their horror of being sold, without any intention of fulfilling the expectation thus excited. But he did not make any audible comment upon it,—only ordered Tom to get the horses ...

— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... please, call it the radical evil of human nature—a name which will at least serve those with whom a word stands for an explanation. I say, however, that it is the will to live, which, more and more embittered by the constant sufferings of existence, seeks to alleviate its own torment by causing torment in others. But in this way a man gradually develops in himself real cruelty and malice. The observation may also be added that as, according to Kant, matter subsists only through the antagonism of ...

— The Essays Of Arthur Schopenhauer • Arthur Schopenhauer

... meantime busy with the wounded men, while five who had been killed were with little ceremony hove overboard. Mrs Podgers and Kitty returned to the cabin. The latter, as before, endeavoured to alleviate the sufferings of the wounded men, and often visited them, attended by Mr Falconer and me, notwithstanding the scoldings she daily got from Mrs ...

— Charley Laurel - A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land • W. H. G. Kingston

... his grandfather came to see him, and sat down by his bedside, full of a tender anxiety which he was soon able to alleviate. ...

— Malcolm • George MacDonald

... from off all faces," is a task too hard for mortals; but to alleviate misfortunes is often within the most limited power: yet the opportunities which every day affords of relieving the most wretched of human beings are overlooked and neglected, with equal disregard of ...

— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, In Nine Volumes - Volume the Third: The Rambler, Vol. II • Samuel Johnson

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