To assuage something painful or distressing, such as fear, guilt, or grief, is to lessen its intensity the way, say, saccharine grape flavoring helps mask some of the bitterness of cough syrup.

ASSUAGE definition: to make milder or less severe; alleviate; ease; mitigate. See examples of assuage used in a sentence.

If you assuage an unpleasant feeling, you make it go away. Assuaging your hunger by eating a bag of marshmallows may cause you other unpleasant feelings.

Calming and relaxing (Definition of assuage from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

assuage something to make an unpleasant feeling less severe. His reply did little to assuage my suspicions. Definition of assuage verb in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, …

If you assuage an unpleasant feeling that someone has, you make them feel it less strongly.

as•suage (əˈsweɪdʒ, əˈsweɪʒ) v.t. -suaged, -suag•ing. 1. to make milder or less severe; relieve; ease; mitigate: to assuage one's grief. 2. to appease; satisfy; allay: to assuage one's hunger. …

Dec 11, 2025 · assuage (third-person singular simple present assuages, present participle assuaging, simple past and past participle assuaged) (transitive) To lessen the intensity of, to …

verb If you assuage a need or desire for something, you satisfy it.

ASSUAGE meaning: to make (something, such as an unpleasant feeling) less painful, severe, etc.