- 1(medical) a medicine or medical treatment that reduces pain without curing its cause Aromatherapy can be used as a palliative. Wordfindercurechemotherapy, cure, disease, drug, injection, medication, osteopathy, palliative, physiotherapy, radiotherapy
- 2(formal, usually disapproving) an action, a decision, etc. that is designed to make a difficult situation seem better without actually solving the cause of the problems Grants by themselves provide little more than a temporary palliative to ailing industries. Word Originlate Middle English (as an adjective): from French palliatif, -ive or medieval Latin palliativus, from the verb palliare ‘to cloak’, from pallium ‘cloak’.
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