palliating

Verb

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

1. 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
2. (obsolete) To hide or disguise.
3. (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
4. (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
5. 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

See all 7 meanings of palliate