Alleviation

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Alleviation \Al*le`vi*a"tion\, n. [LL. alleviatio.]
     1. The act of alleviating; a lightening of weight or
        severity; mitigation; relief.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. That which mitigates, or makes more tolerable.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              I have not wanted such alleviations of life as
              friendship could supply.              --Johnson.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  alleviation
       n 1: the feeling that comes when something burdensome is removed
            or reduced; "as he heard the news he was suddenly
            flooded with relief" [syn: {relief}, {assuagement}]
       2: the act of reducing something unpleasant (as pain or
          annoyance); "he asked the nurse for relief from the
          constant pain" [syn: {easing}, {easement}, {relief}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  80 Moby Thesaurus words for "alleviation":
     abatement, abridgment, allayment, analgesia, anesthesia,
     anesthetizing, appeasement, assuagement, attenuation, blunting,
     calming, contraction, dampening, damping, deadening, decrease,
     decrement, decrescence, deduction, deflation, demulsion,
     depreciation, depression, diminishment, diminution, disburdening,
     disencumberment, dulcification, dulling, dying, dying off, ease,
     easement, easing, extenuation, fade-out, falling-off, hushing,
     languishment, leniency, lessening, letdown, letup, lightening,
     loosening, lowering, lulling, miniaturization, mitigation,
     modulation, mollification, numbing, pacification, palliation,
     quietening, quieting, reduction, relaxation, relief, remedy,
     remission, sagging, salving, scaling down, simplicity, slackening,
     softening, soothing, subduement, subtraction, tempering,
     tranquilization, unballasting, unburdening, unfreighting, unlading,
     unloading, unsaddling, untaxing, weakening