mitigate
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɪt.ɪ.ɡeɪt/
Forms: form: mitigates
form: mitigating
form: mitigated
form: mitigated
Etymology: 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”).
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1795, George Washington, Seventh State of the Union Address:
text: But in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as much as possible, both in its extent and in its character...
ref: 1813, James Madison, Fifth State of the Union Address:
text: Then they tell us that vaccination will mitigate the disease that it will make it milder.
ref: 1896, Walter Hadwen, The Case Against Vaccination:
text: Then I discovered the brilliance of the landscape around was mitigated by blue spectacles.
ref: 1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 7, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC:
text: The plague had not been kind to him, yet had left him this small furry thing to mitigate his sorrow; and when one is very young, one can find great relief in the lively antics of a black kitten.
ref: 1920, H. P. Lovecraft, The Cats of Ulthar:
text: This highly-aggressive approach had results, but briefly caused a major uproar in parts of the United States, which was mitigated by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty in 1842, which formalised the U.S. Navy's contribution to the antislavery efforts.
ref: 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 8:56 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2024:
text: But then crashworthiness is not about preventing accidents, but about mitigating their consequences.
ref: 2021 October 6, Greg Morse, “A need for speed and the drive for 125”, in RAIL, number 941, page 53:
glosses: To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.
raw_tags: of problems or flaws
glosses: To downplay.
examples: text: We've mitigated against the chance of flooding.
synonyms: militate
glosses: To give force or effect toward preventing a problem.
Synonyms: sense: to reduce or lessen
word: alleviate
sense: to reduce or lessen
word: check
sense: to reduce or lessen
word: diminish
sense: to reduce or lessen
word: ease
sense: to reduce or lessen
word: lighten
sense: to reduce or lessen
word: mollify
sense: to reduce or lessen
word: pacify
sense: to reduce or lessen
word: palliate
sense: to reduce or lessen
word: extenuate
Coordinate terms: ameliorate
Derived terms: mitigatable
mitigative
mitigator
remitigate
Related terms: mitigable
mitigant
mitigated
mitigating
mitigation
mitigatory