You searched for: “whitewash”
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.

    • 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."

  • 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."
This entry is located in the following unit: tend-, tendo-, ten-, teno-, tenot-, tenonto-, tens-, tent-, -tend, -tension, -tent, -tense, -tensive, -tentious (page 4)