palliate

/ˈpælieɪt/

palliate verb: to relieve the symptoms of; to ameliorate. Also the past participle of palliate.

Verb

palliate (third-person singular simple present palliates, present participle palliating, simple past and past participle palliated)

To relieve the symptoms of; to ameliorate.
- And if there are some bankers out there who are still embarrassed by the size of their bonuses, then I propose that they palliate their guilt by giving to the Mayor's Fund for London to help deprived children in London.2009, Boris Johnson, The Evening Standard, 15 Jan 09
(obsolete) To hide or disguise.
(figuratively) To cover or disguise the seriousness of (a mistake, offence etc.) by excuses and apologies.
- April 5 1628, Bishop Joseph Hall, The Blessings, Sins, and Judgments of God's Vineyard
  We extenuate not our guilt : whatever we sin , we condemn it as mortal : they palliate wickedness , with the fair pretence of veniality
- The young clergyman, after a few hours of privacy, was sensible that the disorder of his nerves had hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper, which there had been nothing in the physician's words to excuse or palliate.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 10, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 164
(obsolete) To lessen the severity of; to extenuate, moderate, qualify.
- "Ah, dearest!" replied he, "your spirits are exhausted,—perhaps unconsciously oppressed with the idea of that future whose pain and whose peril I have rather heightened than palliated."1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXXVI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 300
- If, mindless of palliating circumstances, we are bound to regard the death of the Master-at-arms as the prisoner's deed, then does that deed constitute a capital crime whereof the penalty is a mortal one?1924, Herman Melville, chapter 18, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.
To placate or mollify.
- Bradly stopped dead, too confounded to be appalled. Young Podson! Impossible! He had last seen young Podson, a bank clerk, on the seat of a pub verandah in an inland town ninety miles away, Bradly's last painting town. A noosance, young Podson, only to be palliated on a pub verandah after dinner.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 65
- [Gordon] Brown's options for the machinery of Whitehall are constrained, as for all prime ministers, by the need to palliate allies and hug enemies close (John Reid, say).2007 January 25, David Walker, “Looking towards a Brown future”, in The Guardian

Adjective

palliate (comparative more palliate, superlative most palliate)

(obsolete) Hidden, concealed.
(obsolete, rare) (of a cure) superficial or temporary.
- All his industry and sales, did in your estate make but a palliate cure.(Can we date this quote?), (Please provide the book title or journal name)

Also used as

palliate is also the past participle of palliate.

Forms of palliate

Verb
third-person singular present	palliates
present participle	palliating
past participle	palliated
past	palliated
Adjective
comparative	more palliate
superlative	most palliate

Origin of palliate

The verb was inherited from Middle English palliaten (“To palliate (a disease), relieve the symptoms of (a patient); to extenuate (an offense); to conceal, hide”), the adjective and participle from its participle palliat(e); further borrowed either from Middle French pallier or directly from Latin palliātus, perfect passive participle of palliō (“to cover with a cloak”)), from pallium (“a cloak”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Words formed from palliate

Questions about palliate

What does palliate mean?: Palliate means to relieve the symptoms of; to ameliorate.
What part of speech is palliate?: Palliate can be a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce palliate?: Palliate is pronounced /ˈpælieɪt/.
What is the past tense of palliate?: The past tense of palliate is palliated.

Words near palliate in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: palliate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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Cite this entry: “palliate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/palliate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.