Chapter Palla to Palmer of P by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

3. To reduce in violence; to lessen or abate; to mitigate; to ease withhout curing; as, to palliate a disease.

To palliate dullness, and give time a shove.

Cowper.

Syn. — To cover; cloak; hide; extenuate; conceal. — To Palliate, Extenuate, Cloak. These words, as here compared, are used in a figurative sense in reference to our treatment of wrong action. We cloak in order to conceal completely. We extenuate a crime when we endeavor to show that it is less than has been supposed; we palliate a crime when we endeavor to cover or conceal its enormity, at least in part. This naturally leads us to soften some of its features, and thus palliate approaches extenuate till they have become nearly or quite identical. "To palliate is not now used, though it once was, in the sense of wholly cloaking or covering over, as it might be, our sins, but in that of extenuating; to palliate our faults is not to hide them altogether, but to seek to diminish their guilt in part." Trench.

Palliation
(Pal`li*a"tion) n. [Cf. F. palliation.]

1. The act of palliating, or state of being palliated; extenuation; excuse; as, the palliation of faults, offenses, vices.

2. Mitigation; alleviation, as of a disease. Bacon.

3. That which cloaks or covers; disguise; also, the state of being covered or disguised. [Obs.]

Palliative
(Pal"li*a*tive) a. [Cf. F. palliatif.] Serving to palliate; serving to extenuate or mitigate.

Palliative
(Pal"li*a*tive) n. That which palliates; a palliative agent. Sir W. Scott.

Palliatory
(Pal"li*a*to*ry) a. Palliative; extenuating.

Pallid
(Pal"lid) a. [L. pallidus, fr. pallere to be or look pale. See pale, a.] Deficient in color; pale; wan; as, a pallid countenance; pallid blue. Spenser.

Pallidity
(Pal*lid"i*ty) n. Pallidness; paleness.

Pallidly
(Pal"lid*ly) adv. In a pallid manner.

Pallidness
(Pal"lid*ness), n. The quality or state of being pallid; paleness; pallor; wanness.

Palliobranchiata
(||Pal`li*o*bran`chi*a"ta) n. pl. [NL.] (Zoöl.) Same as Brachiopoda.

Palliobranchiate
(Pal`li*o*bran"chi*ate) a. [See Pallium, and Branchia.] (Zoöl.) Having the pallium, or mantle, acting as a gill, as in brachiopods.

Pallium
(||Pal"li*um) n.; pl. L. Pallia E. Palliums [L. See Pall the garment.]

1. (Anc. Costume) A large, square, woolen cloak which enveloped the whole person, worn by the Greeks and by certain Romans. It is the Roman name of a Greek garment.

2. (R.C.Ch.) A band of white wool, worn on the shoulders, with four purple crosses worked on it; a pall.

The wool is obtained from two lambs brought to the basilica of St. Agnes, Rome, and blessed. It is worn by the pope, and sent to patriarchs, primates, and archbishops, as a sign that they share in the plenitude of the episcopal office. Befoer it is sent, the pallium is laid on the tomb of St. Peter, where it remains all night.

3. (Zoöl.) (a) The mantle of a bivalve. See Mantle. (b) The mantle of a bird.