mitigate
To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.
Adjective
- Mitigated, alleviated.
Origin
From Middle English mitigat(e) (“mitigated”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten and of mitigate in Early Modern English), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
Forms
Verb
- To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.
- Measures are pursuing to prevent or mitigate the usual consequences of such outrages, and with the hope of their succeeding at least to avert general hostility. - 1795, George Washington, Seventh State of the Union...
- But in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as much as possible, both in its extent and in its character... - 1813, James Madison, Fifth State of the Union Address:
- Then they tell us that vaccination will mitigate the disease that it will make it milder. - 1896, Walter Hadwen, The Case Against Vaccination:
- To downplay.
- To give force or effect toward preventing a problem.
- We've mitigated against the chance of flooding.
Synonyms: militate
Origin
From Middle English mitigaten (“to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease”), from mitigat(e) (“mitigated, alleviated, relived”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin mītigātus, the perfect passive participle of mītigō (“to make soft, ripe; to tame, pacify”), from mītis (“gentle, mild, ripe”) + -igō (“to do, make”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁y- (“mild, soft”).
Forms
Synonyms
alleviate check diminish ease lighten mollify pacify palliate extenuate
Antonyms
aggrandize aggravate exacerbate incite increase intensify irritate worsen
Related
mitigable mitigant mitigated mitigating mitigation mitigatory