1. Referring to a reduction of the severity of or an alleviation of symptoms without curing the underlying disease.
2. Relating to an agent that alleviates or eases a painful or uncomfortable condition.
3. Serving to relieve (a disease) superficially or temporarily, or to mitigate or alleviate (pain or other suffering).
4. A reference to cloaking or to concealing something from others.

Someone who provides medical therapy or a drug that relieves the symptoms of a physical disorder but which does not cure it: A person who treats the symptoms of widespread cancer is considered to be a palliative.

1. A series of approaches of specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses:Palliative care emphasizes on providing patients with relief from the symptoms of pain, physical stress, and mental stress of a serious illness.

The objectives of palliative cares involve therapies that are meant to improve the quality of life for both the patients and their families.

Palliative care is provided by a team of physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and other health professionals who work together with the primary care physician or other specialists in order to provide extra support even for patients who don't have the aid of hospital or hospice staff.

Palliative care can be provided in several places including hospitals, in the patient's home, as part of other community palliative care programs, and in skilled nursing facilities.

Palliative care makes use of a multidisciplinary approach to patient care by relying on input from pharmacists, nurses, chaplains, social workers, psychologists, and other allied health professionals in formulating a plan of care to relieve suffering in all of the areas of a patient's life.

This multidisciplinary approach allows the palliative care group to address physical, emotional, spiritual and social concerns that develop with advanced illnesses.

2. Etymology: derived from Latin palliare, "to cloak" and refers to specialized medical care for people who have serious illnesses.

Therapy that is designed to relieve or to reduce the intensity of uncomfortable symptoms of an ailment but not to produce a cure of it: Some kinds of palliative treatment include the use of narcotics to relieve pain in a patient who has advanced cancer, the creation of a colostomy to bypass an inoperable obstructing lesion of the bowel, and the debridement or the medical removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of the remaining healthy flesh in a patient.