Synonyms:
extenuate, palliate, mitigate
Meaning: lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of; "The circumstances extenuate the crime"
Usage examples
They increase the cares of life; but they mitigate the remembrance of death.
If it may serve to mitigate the liberty I have taken I will add that I am Prince Michael, heir to the throne of the Electorate of Valleluna.
The physicians endeavoured to mitigate it by applying ointments, but in vain. Some said it ought to be cut off; others opposed this course, for fear of greater danger.
Already some owners and masters have begun to mitigate, to a certain extent, the embargo which the choice of a sea-faring life has in times past been understood to place upon married men.