- relieve
- relieve, alleviate, lighten, assuage, mitigate, allay are comparable when they mean to make something tolerable or less grievous. Though they are often used interchangeably, they are clearly distinguishable.Relieve implies a lifting of enough of a burden to make it definitely endurable or temporarily forgotten{
drugs that relieve pain
}{taking steps to control the fire and relieve the suffering it entailed— Milner
}Occasionally relieve, when used in the passive, implies a release from anxiety or fear{they were greatly relieved when her letter came
}Sometimes it suggests a break in monotony or in routine{I've had some trouble to get them together to relieve the dullness of your incarceration— Meredith
}Alleviate stresses the temporary or partial nature of the relief and usually implies a contrast with cure and remedy{oil of cloves will alleviate a toothache
}{to help alleviate New York's chronic traffic problem— Current Biog.
}Lighten implies reduction in the weight of what oppresses or depresses; it often connotes a cheering or refreshing influence{his interest in his work lightened his labors
}{that blessed mood ... in which the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world is lightened— Wordsworth
}Assuage suggests the moderation of violent emotion by influences that soften or mollify or sometimes sweeten{the good gods assuage thy wrath— Shak.
}{the life-giving zephyrs that assuage the torment of the summer heat— Cloete
}Mitigate also suggests moderation in the force, violence, or intensity of something painful; it does not, as assuage does, imply something endured but something inflicting or likely to inflict pain{mitigate the barbarity of the criminal law— Inge
}{group friction and conflict are generally mitigated when people realize their common interests— Cohen
}Allay, though it seldom implies complete release from what distresses or disquiets, does suggest an effective calming or quieting{the report allayed their fears
}{his suspicions were allayed
}{these . . . words . . . allayed agitation; they composed, and con-sequently must make her happier— Austen
}Analogous words: *comfort, console, solace: *moderate, qualify, temper: diminish, reduce, lessen, *decreaseAntonyms: intensify: embarrass: alarm
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
