palliative
/'pæliətiv/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Adjective:
- Moderating pain or sorrow by making it easier to bear: Describes something that alleviates or soothes symptoms, especially of a disease or distress, without addressing the underlying cause.
- Mitigating; serving to excuse or extenuate: Describes an action or measure intended to make a problem seem less serious, often temporarily.
Noun:
- A remedy that alleviates pain without curing: A treatment, typically a medicine, that relieves symptoms but does not cure the disease.
- Something that mitigates or extenuates: An action or measure that makes a bad situation seem less severe, often as a temporary solution.
Usage Examples
Adjective:
- The doctor prescribed a palliative treatment to manage the patient's chronic pain.
- The government's new policy was merely a palliative measure that failed to solve the root economic issues.
Noun:
- Morphine is a powerful palliative for severe cancer pain.
- The tax cut was seen as a political palliative, not a long-term economic fix.
Advanced Usage
"Palliative care": A specialized medical care approach focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness, aiming to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family.
- She decided to enter hospice for palliative care to manage her symptoms comfortably.
"Merely palliative": Used to emphasize that a solution is only temporary and superficial.
- The apology was merely palliative and did not address the systemic injustice.
Variants and Related Words
- Palliate (verb): To make (a disease or its symptoms) less severe or unpleasant without removing the cause; to make (an offense or mistake) seem less serious.
- The medicine helped to palliate her symptoms.
- Palliation (noun): The action of palliating something.
- The palliation of his suffering was the primary goal.
Synonyms
- Adjective: Alleviative, soothing, mitigatory, assuaging, lenitive.
- Noun: Analgesic, painkiller, lenitive, mitigant, placebo.
Related Phrases
- Palliative therapy: Treatment used to relieve or reduce the intensity of uncomfortable symptoms.
- He underwent palliative therapy to improve his breathing.
- Palliative surgery: An operation performed to relieve symptoms caused by cancer or other conditions, not to cure.
- The palliative surgery successfully reduced the intestinal blockage.
Adjective
- moderating pain or sorrow by making it easier to bear
Noun
- remedy that alleviates pain without curing