Palliate

palliate







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D



–verb (used with object) 

1. to relieve 

or 

lessen without curing; mitigate; alleviate. 



2. to try to mitigate or conceal the gravity of (an offense) by excuses, apologies, etc.; extenuate. 





　

The hero of "Synecdoche, New York" is a theatre director named Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman). He runs a successful troupe in Schenectady—so successful that he receives an award from the MacArthur Foundation, giving him carte blanche to unleash his genius at will. 



This is a rare palliative for Caden, the rest of whose existence is a rash of displeasure and doom. His wife, Adele (Catherine Keener), is a painter of canvases so minuscule that viewers must wear magnifying spectacles to see them. 



She is also a top-class moper, sprawling across the couch when they go to counselling. "Can I say something awful?" she asks the therapist, a blonde of terrifying perkiness named Madeleine Gravis (Hope Davis), and then reveals that she fantasizes about her husband’s death. 



"Do you feel terrible?" Madeleine asks Caden, as he digests this news. "Yup." "O.K., good."





assuage

to assuage one's [grief] [hunger] [fears]

abate

to abate a [tax] 

to abate one's [enthusiasm]  

The [storm] has abated. 

The [pain] in his shoulder finally abated.  

mitigate

mollify, allay, appease

Seething with acidic ill will and [un]mitigated vitriol,

Mr. Ozon's movie is sure to enthrall Fassbinder fans, for whom the great bad boy's death in 1982, at the unthinkable age of 36, remains an [im]mitigable loss.

militate

have effect or influence

This criticism in no way militates [against] your going ahead with your research. 



placate

by concessions or conciliatory gestures

to placate an [outraged] citizenry. 

As if the filmmakers felt the need to [placate] modern viewers who might wonder why they should emotionally indulge Nazi authority figures



efface

She would efface [herself] before her father's visitors. 

obliterate

The heavy [rain] obliterated all footprints.

obviate

to [obviate] the risk of serious injury. 



divest

sequence in which Sister Luke divests [herself] of her religious [robes], dons street garb, and walks out to an uncertain future.

elide

to omit (a vowel, consonant, or syllable) in pronunciation

Law. to annul or quash. 

Postscript noting the fates of certain characters conveniently [elides] the sad and/or ironic destinies awaitin[g s]ome of them. 

Debilitate