To “assuage” (uh-SWAYJ) – from the Latin for “sweet” – is to make milder or less severe.
Example (as used by Euripides in Medea, edited by David R. Slavitt and Palmer Bovie): “If only she would come outside / and let us meet her – face to face; / perhaps our words could turn / her anger’s tide, perhaps / we could, if not erase, / at least assuage her rage.”
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