(5) Or will it relieve the pressure on parents who drive to school every day? (6) Lack of open space to relieve hard-packed pavement and gap-toothed Main Streets drained by malls and sprawl sap the life from downtown. (4) Others find that simple antacids relieve their discomfort. (3) The system's flexibility came from its willingness to promote, as well as its willingness to relieve an officer of duty, if necessary. (2) Sadly, however, it will do nothing to relieve their distress. 'Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing' (Ernest Hemingway).(1) Finally she drifted off to sleep, just as they left their tent to go and relieve Tom and Jay from their duty. prayed to the Lord to mitigate a calamity' (John Galt). Mitigate and palliate connote moderating the force or intensity of something that causes suffering: 'I.

Lighten signifies to make less heavy or oppressive: legislation that would lighten the taxpayer's burden. To assuage is to soothe or make milder: assuaged his guilt by confessing to the crime. To relieve is to make more endurable something causing discomfort or distress: 'that misery which he strives in vain to relieve' (Henry David Thoreau).Īllay suggests at least temporary relief from what is burdensome or painful: 'This music crept by me upon the waters, / Allaying both their fury and my passion / With its sweet air' (Shakespeare).Īlleviate connotes temporary lessening of distress without removal of its cause: 'No arguments shall be wanting on my part that can alleviate so severe a misfortune' (Jane Austen). These verbs mean to make something less severe or more bearable. Synonyms: relieve, allay, alleviate, assuage, lighten 2, mitigate, palliate

Relive definition