Pāl'li-āte1, v. t.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. PALLIATED; p. pr. & vb. n. PALLIATING.] [L. Lat. palliare, palliatum, It. palliare, Sp. paliar, Pr. paliar, Fr. pallier, to palliate. See PALLIAMENT.]
Sense 1. To cover with a mantle or dress; to cover up; to hide. [Obs.] “Being palliated with a pilgrim’s coat, and hypocritic sanctity.” Sir T. Herbert. “Not enough to cover the cheat or palliate the illusion.” South.
Sense 2. To cover with excuse; to conceal the enormity of by excuses and apologies; to extenuate; to lessen; to soften by favorable representations; as, to palliate faults, offenses, crimes, or vices.
Sense 3. To reduce in violence; to lessen or abate; to mitigate; as, to palliate a disease.
Synonyms—To cover; cloak; hide; extenuate; conceal.—TO PALLIATE, EXTENUATE, CLOAK. These words, as here compared, are used in a figurative sense in reference to our treatment of wrong action. We cloak in order completely to conceal. We extenuate a crime when we endeavor to show that it is less than has been supposed; we palliate a crime when we endeavor to cover or conceal its enormity, at least in part. This naturally leads us to soften some of its features, and thus palliate approaches toward extenuate till they have become nearly or quite identical. “To palliate is not now used, though it once was, in the sense of wholly cloaking or covering over, as it might be, our sins, but in that of extenuating; to palliate our faults, is not to hide them altogether, but to seek to diminish their guilt in part.” French.