To make light, in a figurative sense; remove in part; lessen, mitigate, or make easier to be endured: as, to alleviate sorrow, pain, care, punishment, burdens, etc.: opposed to aggravate.
To represent as less; lessen the magnitude or heinousness of; extenuate: applied to moral conduct: as, to alleviate an offense.
Synonyms Alleviate, Relieve, Mitigate, Assuage, Allay, diminish, soften, abate, qualify, reduce. See allay. Where these words are applied to pain, etc., alleviate is to lighten somewhat, and especially in a soothing way; relieve and allay go further than alleviate, removing in large measure or altogether. Mitigate is to make mild, less severe; perhaps it stands midway between alleviate and relieve. Assuage is to calm down, and that idea underlies all its uses; allay conveys similarly the idea of putting to rest.