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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Tending or serving to palliate.
  2. adj. Relieving or soothing the symptoms of a disease or disorder without effecting a cure.
  3. n. One that palliates, especially a palliative drug or medicine.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Palliating; extenuating; serving to extenuate by excuses or favorable representation.
  2. Mitigating or alleviating, as pain or disease.
  3. n. That which extenuates: as, a palliative of guilt.
  4. n. That which mitigates, alleviates, or abates, as the violence of pain, disease, or other evil.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Minimising the progression of a disease and relieving undesirable symptoms for as long as possible, rather than attempting to cure the (usually incurable) disease.
  2. n. Something that palliates, particularly a palliative medicine.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Serving to palliate; serving to extenuate, mitigate, or alleviate.
  2. n. That which palliates; a palliative agent.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. remedy that alleviates pain without curing
  2. adj. moderating pain or sorrow by making it easier to bear

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‘palliative’ has been looked up 2214 times, loved by 4 people, added to 40 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 15.