palliate

verb

1 the treatment works by palliating symptoms:

alleviate, ease, relieve, soothe, take the edge off, assuage, allay, dull, soften, lessen, moderate, temper, mitigate, diminish, decrease, blunt, deaden, abate;

rare lenify.

2 if only there were some way to palliate his dirty deed:

disguise, hide, gloss over, conceal, whitewash, cover, cover up, camouflage, cloak, mask, paper over, varnish over;

excuse, justify, extenuate, minimize, mitigate, make light of, tone down, play down, downplay.