Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To make (something burdensome or painful) less intense or severe: assuage her grief. See Synonyms at relieve.
- v. To satisfy or appease (hunger or thirst, for example).
- v. To pacify or calm: assuage their chronic insecurity.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To soften, in a figurative sense; allay; mitigate, ease, or lessen, as pain or grief; moderate; appease or pacify, as passion or tumult.
- Synonyms Alleviate, Relieve, Mitigate, etc. (see alleviate); to appease, mollify, temper (see lists under alleviate and allay).
- To abate or subside; grow less: as, “let thin hert assuage,” Gower; “the waters asswaged,”
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To lessen the intensity of, to mitigate or relieve (hunger, emotion, pain etc.).
- v. transitive To pacify or soothe (someone).
- v. intransitive (obsolete) To calm down, become less violent (of passion, hunger etc.); to subside, to abate.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To soften, in a figurative sense; to allay, mitigate, ease, or lessen, as heat, pain, or grief; to appease or pacify, as passion or tumult; to satisfy, as appetite or desire.
- v. Archaic To abate or subside.
WordNet 3.0
- v. satisfy (thirst)
- v. provide physical relief, as from pain
- v. cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of
Etymologies
- Middle English aswagen, from Old French assouagier "appease, calm", from Vulgar Latin assuaviare, derived from Latin ad- "ad-" + suavis "sweet". (Wiktionary)
- Middle English asswagen, from Old French assuagier, from Vulgar Latin *assuāviāre : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin suāvis, sweet, delightful; see swād- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The move would be to "assuage" DT holders who are "disenchanted" with the performance of the German telco's stock, the Journal says.”
“To assuage those concerns, we have looked hard to see if we have missed the real story.”
“Upcoming second-quarter results may do little to assuage such fears.”
The Wall Street Journal: Will Generous Pay on the Street Hit a Wall?
“Sometimes numbers invoke or ask for favors; other times they assuage hurt feelings in the hope of preventing malign events.”
“Nothing you do will assuage the misery of your lonely empty life.”
Think Progress » DOJ official reportedly clears torture architects John Yoo and Jay Bybee.
“So I think people that are urging war crime trials ought to spend more time trying to assuage worries, e.g. that war crime trials would be seen as illegitimate, would provoke a nationalistic backlash, would start a civil war, or something along those lines, instead of just shouting “principals” and “the law ought to apply to the powerful just as much as the not-powerful” both of which I agree with. pseudonymous in nc Says:”
“Seeking to assuage fears that Argos could be losing ground to rivals, Mr. Duddy said the store had maintained its market share in consumer electronics and the slump in demand was industrywide.”
The Wall Street Journal: Retailers Slump as Argos Sales Plummet
“Paris insisted right after the Fukushima accident that French plants were safe, but wanted inspections as a precautionary measure to assuage any fears in the French population.”
“Despite a recent EU agreement to help assuage the euro-zone debt crisis, bond market participants fear it may flare again at any time.”
“And I don't see anywhere that our President thanked president nut-case in NKorea ... sending Bubba was enough to assuage the super-ego to do what he knew he'd have to do all along.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘assuage’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 318 more...
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Bike Snob'isms
words I saw while reading the Bike Snob
helment, scranus, podium, sangue borse, hipster, dandydom, effete, douchebag, douchebags, Lobweh, Portland, brakeless track bike and 318 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Used
halcyon, ineluctable, inspissated, incarnadine, askance, demur, saltation, requisite, effusive, specious, liminality, indomitable and 114 more...
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Quacksalvers et al. Nostrum
Bring forth the cathartic illumination on malignant,maniacal,medical,menage a trios and more egotists stymie
culpability, piousfraud, capacitous, rhabdomyolysis, scapula, idiosyncrasy, quiescent, malignant, nefarious, sociological, sociopath, pathogen and 202 more...
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to lessen
words to shorten, weaken, or lessen
obviate, curtail, truncate, nadir, effete, attenuate, attrition, assuage, severance, phthisis, eviscerate
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Neuro-logical ??
The discovering of neuro and phago-cyte nano-engineered biology...
opsoclonus, opsomania, speciefic, opsonin, reveal, parsec, stereopsis, scarious, ablative absolute, presage, requisitory, nuance and 58 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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Neww
specious, disdainfully, vehemently, in lieu of, dismissive, perpetual, preposterous, impasse, fathom, conversely, repugnant, clogged and 142 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for assuage.
lweber5@scf.edu Dictionary.com, There are many ways to assuage the fears of the American public. Nov 5, 2010
Prolagus Time can assuage the pangs of love, but only death can still the anguish of wounded vanity.
(W.S. Maugham) Mar 11, 2008
jonjonz Looks good, sounds good, and has a good effect or result. Should be a great brand name, if joe sixpack can get past the initial obvious crudity. "Assuage, because you care..." Dec 2, 2006