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“palliate”
extenuate, palliate (PAL ee ate"), gloss over, whitewash (verb forms)
These words all mean to make something seem less wrong, evil, blameworthy, etc.
- Extenuate suggests the effort to lessen, or to decrease blame that has been incurred by an offense, while palliate implies concealment, to make less severe or intense, as of the incriminating facts or the gravity of their consequences.
- Gloss over stresses the disguising or misrepresentation of incriminating facts; such as, to gloss over a mediocre academic record.
- To whitewash is to represent by completely false information or a dishonest judgment: "The accused man went free, whitewashed by a misguided board of investigation."
To extenuate past neglect by present concern; to palliate the errors in a book:
"Starvation may serve to extenuate an instance of theft."
"A doting parent may seek to palliate the excesses of an errant son."
"A doting parent may seek to palliate the excesses of an errant son."
This entry is located in the following unit:
tend-, tendo-, ten-, teno-, tenot-, tenonto-, tens-, tent-, -tend, -tension, -tent, -tense, -tensive, -tentious
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palliate (PAL ee ayt") (verb), palliates; palliated; palliating
1. To reduce the severity of; to relieve slightly; to mitigate: To palliate a disease or its symptoms is to make them less severe or unpleasant without removing the causes of them.
2. To ease or to reduce the effect or intensity of something: Thomas tried hard to palliate his sad feelings for the loss of his mother, but it wasn’t possible.
3. To cover up; to hide; to conceal: Jack often lies to his parents and palliates his actions by saying that it is all right because all of his friends lie to their mothers and fathers, too.
4. To make less emphatic or pronounced; to moderate, mitigate, qualify or tone down; especially, regarding one's actions or comments: Eddie palliated or tried to excuse the statement he made at the dining table during dinner when he said that his sister was engaged to be married, even though she wasn’t!
5. To take up a more moderate explanation, to compromise; to rationalize: Rebecca palliated the fact of not getting the job she applied for by saying that it was too far from her home or that the employer didn’t like her, instead of saying that she didn’t qualify for it.
6. To disguise the seriousness or gravity of an offense: There is no way to excuse or to palliate Bill's son of his bad behavior.
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2. To ease or to reduce the effect or intensity of something: Thomas tried hard to palliate his sad feelings for the loss of his mother, but it wasn’t possible.
3. To cover up; to hide; to conceal: Jack often lies to his parents and palliates his actions by saying that it is all right because all of his friends lie to their mothers and fathers, too.
4. To make less emphatic or pronounced; to moderate, mitigate, qualify or tone down; especially, regarding one's actions or comments: Eddie palliated or tried to excuse the statement he made at the dining table during dinner when he said that his sister was engaged to be married, even though she wasn’t!
5. To take up a more moderate explanation, to compromise; to rationalize: Rebecca palliated the fact of not getting the job she applied for by saying that it was too far from her home or that the employer didn’t like her, instead of saying that she didn’t qualify for it.
6. To disguise the seriousness or gravity of an offense: There is no way to excuse or to palliate Bill's son of his bad behavior.
To palliate is to consider some wrong action or behavior to be less wrong than it has been considered to be, or someone palliates a crime in order to hide or to conceal its enormity or its brutality.
7. Etymology: from Latin palliare, "to cloak, to cover".Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
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This entry is located in the following unit:
palli-, pallio, pallit-
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