Assuage

//əˈsweɪd͡ʒ// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To lessen the intensity of, to mitigate or relieve (hunger, emotion, pain, etc.). transitive

    "Refreshing winds the summer's heat assuage."

  2. 2
    provide physical relief, as from pain wordnet
  3. 3
    To pacify or soothe (someone). transitive
  4. 4
    satisfy (thirst) wordnet
  5. 5
    To calm down, become less violent (of passion, hunger etc.); to subside, to abate. intransitive, obsolete
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  1. 6
    cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
easequenchrelievepacifyabateadjust

Example

More examples

"It would never occur to Tom to keep a confidence if he thought that revealing it might assuage his soap bubble of an ego."

Etymology

From Middle English aswagen, from Old French asuagier (“to appease, to calm”), from Vulgar Latin *assuāviō (“I sweeten, I butter up, I calm”), derived from Latin ad- + suāvis (“sweet”) + -iō.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.