comfort

comfort n ease, *rest, repose, relaxation, leisure

Analogous words: contentedness or content, satisfaction (see corre-sponding adjectives under SATISFY vb): enjoyment, joy, fruition, *pleasure: relief, assuagement, alleviation (see corresponding verbs at RELIEVE)

Antonyms: discomfort

Contrasted words: *distress, suffering, misery

comfort vb Comfort, console, solace are comparable when meaning to give or offer a person help or assistance in relieving his suffering or sorrow.

Comfort, the hotnelier, more intimate word, suggests relief afforded by imparting positive cheer, hope, or strength as well as by the lessening of pain and distress

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he hath sent me ... to comfort all that mourn— Isa 61:l-2

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a mother comforts her sobbing child

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but there was about him a certain reserve, and she dared not comfort him, not even speak softly to him— D. H. Lawrence

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Console, the more formal term, emphasizes rather the alleviation of grief or the mitigation of the sense of loss than the communication of pleasure; it frequently implies some definite source of relief

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the presence of his friend consoled him

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console oneself by philosophic reflections

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if you really want to console me, teach me rather to forget what has happened— Wilde

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his father's letter gave him one of his many fits of melancholy over his own worthlessness, but the thought of the organ consoled him— Butler d.l902

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Solace frequently suggests relief from distressful emotions (as weariness, despondency, chagrin, loneliness, or dullness) rather than from grief or pain, and often, specifically, a lift of the spirits; the source of that relief is more often things than persons

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solace oneself with books

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though you rail against the bar and the imperfect medium of speech, you will be solaced, even in your chagrin, by a sense of injured innocence— Cardozo

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Analogous words: delight, gladden, rejoice, *please: *relieve, assuage, mitigate, alleviate: refresh, restore (see RENEW)

Antonyms: afflict: bother

Contrasted words: *distress, trouble: torment, torture, try (see AFFLICT): vex, *annoy, irk