assuage
/əˈsweɪdʒ
/verb [with object]
1Make (an unpleasant feeling) less intense: the letter assuaged the fears of most members...
- For some reason it's comforting to be able to really dislike him; it assuages the guilty feelings our envy produces.
- Trying to assuage the ruffled feelings of the masses by conducting such events in situations of necessity may be fine.
- The subsequent amendments were being proposed to assuage the feelings of industry.
Synonyms
relieve, ease, alleviate, soothe, mitigate, dampen, allay, calm, palliate, abate, lull, temper, suppress, smother, stifle, subdue, tranquillize, mollify, moderate, modify, tone down, attenuate, dilute, lessen, diminish, decrease, reduce, lower;
put an end to, put a stop to, take the edge off
informal kill
rare lenify
1.1Satisfy (an appetite or desire): an opportunity occurred to assuage her desire for knowledge...
- Once the most serious hunger pangs were assuaged, Nicholas remembered his manners and his curiosity.
- Our hunger was rapidly assuaged, and by the time we pushed our plates away, we were both full.
- How else is he supposed to assuage England's desperate hunger for success if he cannot even get players together for a few days?
Synonyms
satisfy, fulfil, gratify, appease, indulge, relieve, slake, sate, satiate, quench, quell, overcome, check, keep in check, dull, blunt, allay, take the edge off, diminish
Derivatives
assuagement
- Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain.
- It is said that they are in flight from an insupportable nervous strain, from which they find temporary assuagement only in sleep.
- When we fall in love we imagine we have found an ultimate assuagement of loneliness.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French assouagier, asouagier, based on Latin ad- 'to' (expressing change) + suavis 'sweet'.