palliation

Old (and modern) French, from late Latin palliare (“cover”), from pallium.

• IPA^(key): /pælɪˈeɪʃən/

  Rhymes: -eɪʃən

palliation (countable and uncountable, plural palliations)

1. The alleviation of a disease's symptoms without a cure; temporary relief.
   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it.

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, The Kingdom of the Wicked

     Una nox dormienda means that one final night that has to be slept through after a few score years of pain and its palliations, of pleasure and disgust after pleasure.

2. Extenuation; mitigation.