Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To make (pain, for example) less intense or more bearable: synonym: relieve.
- transitive verb To lessen or reduce.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make light, in a figurative sense; remove in part; lessen, mitigate, or make easier to be endured: as, to
alleviate sorrow, pain, care, punishment, burdens, etc.: opposed to aggravate. - To represent as less; lessen the magnitude or heinousness of; extenuate: applied to moral conduct: as, to
alleviate an offense. - Synonyms Alleviate, Relieve, Mitigate, Assuage, Allay, diminish, soften, abate, qualify, reduce. See
allay . Where these words are applied to pain, etc., alleviate is to lighten somewhat, and especially in a soothing way; relieve and allay go further than alleviate, removing in large measure or altogether. Mitigate is to make mild, less severe; perhaps it stands midway between alleviate and relieve. Assuage is to calm down, and that idea underlies all its uses; allay conveys similarly the idea of putting to rest.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To lighten or lessen the force or weight of.
- transitive verb To lighten or lessen (physical or mental troubles); to mitigate, or make easier to be endured; ; -- opposed to
aggravate . - transitive verb rare To extenuate; to palliate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To make less
severe , as apain ordifficulty .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb provide physical relief, as from pain
- verb make easier
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word alleviate.
Examples
-
My understanding of the word alleviate is not to eradicate but to lessen or make less severe; that is surely not a completely impossible goal and it is usually why many people seek medical help in the first place?
ProWomanProLife » Malcolm Gladwell and the origins of the Pill 2009
-
Recently, I read a a media release that noted some state lawmakers have considered seeking government support in a last ditch effort to save local media outlets, yet some only see government intervention as posing a conflict of interest to free press and democracy, although in the short-term alleviate some of the financial strainnewspapers are facing.
-
Recently, I read a a media release that noted some state lawmakers have considered seeking government support in a last ditch effort to save local media outlets, yet some only see government intervention as posing a conflict of interest to free press and democracy, although in the short-term alleviate some of the financial strainnewspapers are facing.
-
Suddenly the writer remembers the nameless malady of the poor — that mysterious disease which the rich share but cannot alleviate, which is too subtle for doctors, too incurable for Parliaments, too unpicturesque for philanthropy, too common even for sympathy.
-
Of course, he has health insurance, and he has made a fortune off insurance lobbyists and pharmaceuticals to "alleviate" their liability in lawsuits.
McConnell: Public option a nonstarter for Senate Republicans 2009
-
I'm sure Delta has done the same, just kind of alleviate the situation a little bit.
-
Kasrils said addressing these issues would "alleviate" a lot of problems.
-
(Consumer Reports today said that the bumper does indeed "alleviate" the problem.)
-
The recently launched third Kenya National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS 2009-2013 highlights the need to scale up interventions among "most-at-risk" populations, including prisoners, but notes that the criminal nature of the activities of these populations posed a serious challenge to programming; the strategy aims to "alleviate" the constraints that have hampered programmes for these groups.
-
We "alleviate" the stress by teaching more overloads, doing more class preparations, agreeing to larger class sizes, foregoing sabbaticals, never asking for release time, paying for our own conference trips, making fewer copies of articles, concurring with the hiring of more part-timers and temporary instructors, and so forth.
MRZine.org 2009
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.