soft-pedal, tone down, play down, downplay; justify, excuse, rationalize, apologize for, make allowances for; whitewash, cover up, gild, color, varnish, gloss over, smooth over, veneer; lighten, soften, lessen, diminish, moderate, temper, qualify, (of words) mince; sweeten, sugar-coat, candy-coat, dulcify.
2. mitigate, alleviate, reduce, weaken, abate; allay, assuage, Rare, lenify, appease, soothe, Archaic, attemper; relieve, ease, cushion, mollify; calm, compose, tranquilize, still, quiet, hush, lull; solace, console, succor, remedy; quell, slake, deaden, dull, obtund, blunt, take the edge off of; smother, check, curb, tame, subdue.
palliation, n. 1. extenuation, minimizing, minimization, playing down; justification, vindication, exculpation, exoneration; excuse, rationalization, apology; whitewash, cover-up, varnish, gloss, veneer; sugar-coating, candy-coating; softening, lightening, lessening, diminution; moderation, tempering, qualifying, (of words) mincing.
2. mitigation, alleviation, reduction, weakening, abatement; assuagement, appeasement, soothing; relief, relieving, ease, easement, respite, letup, deliverance; consolation, solace, remedy, comfort.
palliative, adj. 1. alleviative, alleviatory, mitiga-tive, mitigatory, lenitive, Med. abirritant; mollifying, soothing, calming, Med. calmative, assuasive, demulcent; relaxing, numbing, dulling, anesthetic; pain-killing, anodyne, Med. analgesic, deadening.
-n. 2. sedative, sedation, Med. calmative, tranquilizer, narcotic, opiate, drug, anesthetic; painkiller, anodyne, Med. analgesic; softener, sweetener, demulcent, lenitive, Med. emollient, Med. abirritant; balm, salve, unguent, ointment, liniment.
pallid, adj. 1. pale, wan, pale-faced, anemic, sickly, Obs. blate; waxen, sallow, pasty, ashen, ashy, livid; ghostly, ghastly, deathlike, cadaverous, lurid; bloodless, white, drained; wheyfaced, sallow-faced, unhealthy looking, unwholesome looking, peaked looking; deathly pale, drained of color, pale as a ghost, like death.
2. insipid, uninteresting, unentertaining, inexpressive, unimaginative, colorless, jejune, Sl. blah; unanimated, spiritless, zestless, sapless, tame, lifeless, empty, Sl. dead, Sl. nothing; pointless, weak, feeble, anemic, sterile, Inf. washed out; dull, boring, monotonous, humdrum, tedious, tiresome; stale, tired, trite, banal, platitudinous; indistinctive, run-of-the-mill, ordinary, commonplace, average; bland, vapid, thin, watered-down.
pallor, n. wanness, unnatural paleness, ashenness, lividness, bloodlessness, anemia; ghostliness, deathliness, sickliness, ghastliness.
palm1, n. 1. hand, open hand; extremity, Sl. mitt, Sl. paw, Sl. fin, Sl. flipper; (all of animals) paw, foot, pad, Zool. forefoot, Anat., Zool. manus.
2. cross or
grease someone's palm give money to, bribe, pay off, buy, buy off, suborn, corrupt; fix, Inf. rig, Inf. square; induce, tempt, lure, entice; coax, influence.
-v. 3. conceal, hide in the hand; take surreptitiously, take away, snatch, Inf. snitch, Sl. lift, filch, purloin, Sl. pinch, pilfer, cabbage, Sl. mooch, Sl. cop, steal.
4. Usu.
palm on or
upon foist on, force upon, impose upon, thrust upon, lay on or upon, unload upon, take advantage of.
5. touch, brush lightly, caress; pat, stroke, rub gently, massage.
6. shake hands, give a grip, Sl. slap [s.o.] five, Sl. give [s.o.] some skin.
7. palm off pass off, fob off, foist off.
