Attenuate vs Palliate - What's the difference?
attenuate | palliate |
To reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree.
* 1874 , , Far From the Madding Crowd , ch. 40:
To make thinner, as by physically reshaping, starving, or decaying.
* 1899 , , His New Mittens , ch. 4:
* 1906 , , The Malefactor , ch. 1:
To weaken.
* Coleridge
* Sir F. Palgrave
To rarefy.
* 1901 , , The First Men in the Moon , ch. 23:
(medicine) To reduce the virulence of a bacteria or virus.
(electronics) To reduce the amplitude of an electrical signal.
(botany, of leaves) Gradually tapering into a petiole-like extension toward the base.
----
(obsolete) Cloaked; hidden, concealed.
(obsolete) Eased; mitigated; alleviated.
To relieve the symptoms of; to ameliorate.
* 2009 , Boris Johnson, The Evening Standard , 15 Jan 09:
(obsolete) To hide or disguise.
To cover or disguise the seriousness of (a mistake, offence etc.) by excuses and apologies.
(obsolete) To lessen the severity of; to extenuate, moderate, qualify.
To placate or mollify.
* 2007 , "Looking towards a Brown future", The Guardian , 25 Jan 07:
As verbs the difference between attenuate and palliate
is that attenuate is to reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree while palliate is to relieve the symptoms of; to ameliorate.As adjectives the difference between attenuate and palliate
is that attenuate is (botany|of leaves) gradually tapering into a petiole-like extension toward the base while palliate is (obsolete) cloaked; hidden, concealed.attenuate
English
Verb
(attenuat)- A manor-house clock from the far depths of shadow struck the hour, one, in a small, attenuated tone.
- Clumps of attenuated turkeys were suspended here and there.
- Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.
- The attention attenuates as its sphere contracts.
- We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagreness.
- "It speedily became apparent that the entire strangeness of our circumstances and surroundings—great loss of weight, attenuated but highly oxygenated air, consequent exaggeration of the results of muscular effort, rapid development of weird plants from obscure spores, lurid sky—was exciting my companion unduly."
Antonyms
* amplify (electronics)Derived terms
* attenuation * attenuableAdjective
(en adjective)palliate
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- (Bishop Hall)
- (Bishop Fell)
Verb
(palliat)- And if there are some bankers out there who are still embarrassed by the size of their bonuses, then I propose that they palliate their guilt by giving to the Mayor's Fund for London to help deprived children in London.
- Brown's options for the machinery of Whitehall are constrained, as for all prime ministers, by the need to palliate allies and hug enemies close (John Reid, say).
