assuage

[uh-sweyj, uh-sweyzh] /əˈsweɪdʒ, əˈsweɪʒ/

verb (used with object), assuaged, assuaging.

to make milder or less severe; relieve; ease; mitigate:

to assuage one's grief; to assuage one's pain.

to appease; satisfy; allay; relieve:

to assuage one's hunger.

to soothe, calm, or mollify:

to assuage his fears; to assuage her anger.

Origin

1250-1300; Middle English aswagen < Old French asouagier < Vulgar Latin *assuāviāre, equivalent to Latin as- as- + -suāviāre, verbal derivative of Latin suāvis agreeable to the taste, pleasant (cf. suave; akin to sweet)

Related forms

assuagement, noun

assuager, noun

unassuaged, adjective

unassuaging, adjective

Synonyms

1. alleviate, lessen.

Antonyms

intensify.

Examples from the web for assuage

It also agreed to make its secret source code available to some governments in order to assuage security concerns.
The authorities have agreed to hold the vote over one day instead of two, to assuage fears of manipulation.
To assuage security concerns, each watch is given its own serial number.
The trial results might also assuage safety concerns.
Maybe writing about him would assuage some of the loneliness.
In their decision last night, finance ministers tried to assuage the markets.
That fact does nothing to assuage grief or diminish the crime.
To assuage the fears of donors, the university has hired two computer-forensics companies to investigate the attack.
Even that might not make a big difference, but it helps assuage the feelings.
This helped assuage any ethical concerns that I had.

British Dictionary definitions for assuage

assuage

/əˈsweɪdʒ/

verb (transitive)

to soothe, moderate, or relieve (grief, pain, etc)

to give relief to (thirst, appetite, etc); satisfy

to pacify; calm

Derived Forms

assuagement, noun
assuager, noun
assuasive (əˈsweɪsɪv) adjective

Word Origin

C14: from Old French assouagier, from Vulgar Latin assuāviāre (unattested) to sweeten, from Latin suāvis pleasant; see suave

Word Origin and History for assuage

c.1300, from Anglo-French assuager, Old French assoagier "soften, moderate, alleviate, calm, soothe, pacify," from Vulgar Latin *adsuaviare, from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + suavis "sweet, agreeable" (see sweet). For sound development in French, cf. deluge from Latin diluvium, abridge from abbreviare. Related: Assuaged; assuaging.