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Brit. /
pal
et/, U.S. /pæli
et/ Forms: lME- palliate, 16 palliat. [< PALLIATE adj. Compare post-classical Latin palliare to cloak, conceal (Augustine, 5th cent.), to play down the importance of, extenuate (from c1125 in British sources), to alleviate (1363 in Chauliac), Middle French, French pallier (c1300 in Old French in sense 4a, 1314 in sense 1).]
1. trans. To alleviate (a disease or its symptoms) without effecting a cure; to relieve or ease (physical or emotional suffering) temporarily or superficially; to mitigate the sufferings of.
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac
Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 164, A rounde cauterie ad cetonem..for to palliate leprose men [?
c1425 Paris to couere lepres].
1588 J. READ tr. Arcæus
Compend. Method 60 They [
sc. bone diseases] eyther bee neuer cured, or else onelie so palliated that they breake out againe.
a1714 J. SHARP Serm. (1738) V. ix. 284 He is but half a Physician; he hath palliated our sores and diseases, but he hath not removed them.
1743 H. FIELDING Journey from This World to Next I. xxi. 183 The Loss of one we tenderly love..wants the Lenitive which palliates and softens every other Calamity; I mean that great Reliever, Hope.
1766 T. AMORY Life John Buncle II. xii. 442 Those animal, vegetable, and fossil substances, which are used to prevent, cure, or palliate diseases.
1868 J. E. T. ROGERS Man. Polit. Econ. xxi. 277 That which cannot be cured may be palliated.
1875 E. H. KNIGHT Pract. Dict. Mech. 2678/1 A broad band of fabric..is buckled around the umbilical region of the body to serve as an abdominal supporter and for palliating umbilical hernia.
1918 V. WOOLF Diary 4 May (1977) I. 147 He has no special gift or fortune to palliate life.
1997 S. S
HEM Mount Misery iii. 78 You don't cure heart disease or kidney disease, you palliate it.
2. trans. To cover with or as with a cloak; to clothe; to shelter. Also fig. Obs.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f xxxij, Surmyse setfoorth and palliated with the vesture..of a professed veritee.
a1636 T. WESTCOTE View Devonsh. 1630 (1845) 60 Her sheep..are palliated under the coverture of the high-grown hedges of enclosures.
1656 S. BOULTON Medicina Ded. sig. Aij
v, It is the accustomed manner of our modern Writers, alwaies to palliate themselves under the Protection of some worthy Patron.
3. trans. To hide, conceal, disguise. Obs.
1598 BACON Sacred Medit. (Arb) vii. 117 Hipocrites with their dissembling holinesse towards God doe palliate and couer their iniuries towardes men.
1658 L. WILLAN Orgula III. ii. 40 Yet vainly do my thoughts avouch to what They cannot frame, and with a false apparrell Palliate my wound.
1690 J. LOCKE Ess. Humane Understanding II. xxi. 120 However the name Faculty,..may by this appropriated term, seem a little to palliate the absurdity.
1745 E. HAYWOOD Female Spectator sig. B2, What Faults we find among ourselves, it is certainly our Business to conceal, and palliate as much as possible.
1795 G. MORRIS in J. Sparks
Life G. Morris (1832) III. 58 The bankruptcy of their India Company, long palliated, now stands confest.
1809-12 M. EDGEWORTH Almeria vii, Her name was printed among the list of subscribers, and there was no palliating the fact.
4. trans.
a. To disguise or misrepresent the gravity of (an offence, fault, etc.) esp. by means of an excuse; to extenuate, excuse.
1604 J. MARSTON Malcontent sig. B1
v, He gives good intelligence to my spirit, makes me understand those weaknesses which others flattery palliates.
1653 H. COGAN tr. F. M. Pinto
Voy. & Adventures ix. 27 This advice causing him to see his fault..he labored to have palliated it with certain excuses.
1726 N. A
MHURST Terræ-filius xxxiii. 177 If you have ever so many ugly [qualities], they will be either palliated, or jesuitically interpreted into good ones.
1777 W. ROBERTSON Hist. Amer. I.
III. 215 They endeavoured to palliate what they could not justify.
1856 J. A. FROUDE Hist. Eng. (1858) II. vi. 83 The illegal imprisonment cannot be explained away, and cannot be palliated.
1878 W. E. H. LECKY Hist. Eng. 18th Cent. I. i. 119 These considerations only slightly palliate his conduct.
1956 A. WILSON Anglo-Saxon Attitudes II. i. 190 The casual laugh with which he palliated the remark did not make it the less direct.
1988 M. C
HARNEY Hamlet's Fictions III. viii. 115 Soliloquy allows Claudius full scope for his breathless malice. There is no need to equivocate or palliate his homicidal intent.
b. To excuse (a person). Obs. rare.
1862 M. B. BETHAM-EDWARDS John & I III. i. 9 As well endeavour to show that black is white, as to prove that any temptations you may have had can in the smallest degree palliate you.
5. trans. To indulge or satisfy (one's taste). Obs.
1631 J. WEEVER Anc. Funerall Monuments 154, I haue inserted these parcels of the Psalter, that by this occasion my Reader might palliate his taste with an Essay of our Ancestors old English.
a1632 T. TAYLOR God's Judgem. (1642)
II. vii. 110 Next all the Candies, Preserves, all the Junkets..to palliate his taste.
6. a trans. To make less emphatic or pronounced; to moderate, qualify, or tone down (an action, statement, etc.). Obs.
1665 S. PEPYS Diary 31 Dec. (1972) VI. 342 The great evil of this year..is the fall of my Lord of Sandwich, whose mistake about the Prizes hath undone him..though sent (for a little palliateing it) Imbassador into Spayne.
1711 T. HEARNE Remarks & Coll. (1889) III. 135 The Author..is forc'd to palliate what he said about Mr. Harley's being an Accomplice by an Advertisement he has in his Paper last Night.
1796 J. MORSE Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) II. 489 This fanciful piece of beauty [
sc. small feet] was probably invented by the ancient Chinese, to palliate their jealousy.
b. intr. To take up a more moderate position, to compromise. Obs.
1672 A. MARVELL Rehearsal Transpros'd I. 223 Do you think the Christians would have palliated so far, and colluded with their Consciences?
1747 S. RICHARDSON Clarissa II. xxxiv. 231 To obtain this
time, you must palliate a little, and come into some seeming compromise.
c. trans. To moderate the hostility of; to placate, mollify.
1678 J. BUNYAN Pilgrim's Progress Author's Apol. sig. A4, Yea, that I might them better palliate [
1684 moderate], I did too with them thus Expostulate.
1978 R. N
IXON RN: Memoirs 857 Kissinger..said that we would always regret it if we hurt innocent people in an effort to palliate the press.
1995 Sydney Morning Herald 30 May 8/6 The UN force was a
substitute
a gigantic political bluff to palliate uneasy consciences.
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