palliativeEnglishOxford English Thesauruspalliative adjective the role of these drugs is essentially palliative: soothing, alleviating, sedative, calmative, calming; rare alleviative, alleviatory, lenitive, demulcent, assuasive, mitigatory, mitigative, paregoric.noun antibiotics and palliatives: painkiller, analgesic, pain reliever, sedative, tranquillizer, anodyne, calmative, opiate, bromide; rare lenitive, demulcent, mitigative, paregoric.palliative Oxford Dictionary of English