Assuage

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for not answering sweet, thoughtful comments
posting with more care
more often

here but far away and finding the computer clumsy and an imperfect medium at the moment. Sometimes it'd be nice to arrange to sit down with each of you for coffee and carrot cake and enjoy the sunshine.



To Alleviate, Mitigate, Assuage, Allay. These words have in common the idea of relief from some painful state; and being all figurative, they differ in their application, according to the image under which this idea is presented. Alleviate supposes a load which is lightened or taken off; as, to alleviate one's cares. Mitigate supposes something fierce which is made mild; as, to mitigate one's anguish. Assuage supposes something violent which is quieted; as, to assuage one's sorrow. Allay supposes something previously excited, but now brought down; as, to allay one's suffering or one's thirst. To alleviate the distresses of life; to mitigate the fierceness of passion or the violence of grief; to assuage angry feeling; to allay wounded sensibility. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.