palliation

Old (and modern) French, from late Latin palliare (“cover”), from pallium.

• IPA^(key): /pælɪˈeɪʃən/

  Rhymes: -eɪʃən

palliation (countable and uncountable, plural palliations)

1. The alleviation of a disease's symptoms without a cure; temporary relief.
   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it.

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, The Kingdom of the Wicked:

     Una nox dormienda means that one final night that has to be slept through after a few score years of pain and its palliations, of pleasure and disgust after pleasure.

2. Extenuation; mitigation.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Changes in London”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 235:

     The strong hand of the law is around your life and your wealth, but he who takes from you all that renders them valuable, the chances are, that his offence will find palliation and excuse; nay, that the laughers will be on his side.