▪ I. † ˈmitigate, pa. pple. and ppl. a. Obs.
Forms: see mitigate v.; also 6 Sc. mitigait.
[ad. L. mītigātus, pa. pple. of mītigāre: see next.]
Mitigated, alleviated.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 387 Hit was answerede to theyme by Apollo Delphicus that pestilence to be mitigate [L. sedari] if [etc.]. Ibid. VII. 35 But their myndes not mitigate þerwith [L. Sed adhuc non sedatis animis]. 1531 Elyot Gov. ii. vi, The wise prince with that playne confession was mitigate. a 1533 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) L vj, His chastysement was mitigate, and more easye. 1560 A. L. tr. Calvin's Foure Serm. Song Ezech. iv, That the pain should be mitigate. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus Prol. 113 Sumpart ar dry and sum are mitigait. 1592 in Neal Hist. Purit. (1732) I. 551 That some more mitigate and peaceable course might be taken therein. |
▪ II. mitigate, v.
(ˈmɪtɪgeɪt)
Also 5 myttygate, 6 mytygate, metigat(e, mit(t)igat, mittegate, 6–7 mytigate, mittigate, 7 medigate; also pa. tense 6 Sc. metigat.
[f. L. mītigāt-, ppl. stem of mītigāre, f. mīti-s mild, gentle. Cf. F. mitiger (OF. also mitiguer), Sp. mitigar, It. mitigare.]
1. trans. To render (a person, his mind, disposition, or mood) milder, more gentle, or less hostile; to appease, mollify. Now rare.
| 1432–50, 1531 [see mitigate pa. pple.]. 1513 More Rich. III, Wks. 57/1 Where the king toke displeasure, she would mitigate & appease his mind. 1584 Cogan Haven Health ii. (1636) 21 The Chesse..was invented..to mitigate the minds or hearts of Tyrants. 1642 Declar. Lords & Com. London 8 Such Commissioners were mittigated, in respect of some clauses perilous to the Commissioners, and approved of for the time to come. 1761 Hume Hist. Eng. I. viii. 178 The Cardinal of Pavia..tooke care..to mitigate the pope by the accounts which he sent of that princes conduct. 1855 Pusey Doctr. Real Presence Note S. §75. 694 S. Leo the Great..mitigated Genseric, when Rome was taken. 1859 J. Brown Rab & F. (1862) 18 The severe little man was mitigated, and condescended to say ‘Rab, ma man, puir Rabbie’. |
2. a. To render (anger, hatred, etc.) less fierce or violent; to appease.
| 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxxv. 271 The preestys..to the entent to myttygate..the crueltye of the sayd tyrauntes, dyd open them the ornamentys of the sayde churche. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge ii. 1554 O glorious virgin..Metigate the malice..of Richard our lorde. 1558 Bp. Watson Sev. Sacram. xviii 116 To mitigate Goddes dyspleasure. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 302 Thir goode wordis..metigat and assuadgit the Duike of Albanieis anger. 1579–80 North Plutarch, Sylla (1595) 503 To mitigate somewhat the peoples ill will towards him. 1656 in Verney Mem. (1894) III. 317 [Luce begs Sir Ralph to do his best] to medigate my lady's anger against her dau{supr}. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. v. (1778) II. 90 Montezuma addressed them with every argument that could mitigate their rage. 1855 Prescott Philip II, I. iii. vi. 379 The..envoys interposed to mitigate the king's anger. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 17 His [Socrates'] hostility towards the sophists..was not mitigated in later life. |
† b. To relax the violence of (one's actions, etc.).
| c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. vii. (Lion & Mouse) xl, To remit sum tyme ane grit offence, And mitigate with mercy crueltie. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 39 Mitigate by measure your proude hastie language. 1549 Compl. Scot. Prol. 13 Dame fortoune vil mittigat hyr auen crualte. |
3. a. To alleviate (physical or mental pain); to lessen the violence of (a disease); to lighten the burden of (an evil of any kind).
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) V. 389 A man nesynge, peple beynge by use to say ‘Criste helpe the', and make a crosse on their mowthe to mitigate that passion. 1502 W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione iii. liii. 241 Comforte me, good lorde, in my exyle mytygate my sorowe. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. O j b, Anoynte it [sc. the place] with oyle of Roses..to mytygate the smert. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 5 It is wisedome..warely to mitigate, by protestacion, the evill that is in theim. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. x. 26 And dieted with fasting every day, The swelling of his woundes to mitigate. 1591 Sparry tr. Cattan's Geomancie B ij, The Iasper stone..hath vertue to mittigate Kernels of the flesh. 1655 Culpepper, etc. Riverius vi. i. 132 At first the pain wil seem to encrease; but afterward, it wil be mitigated, and cease. 1715 Addison Freeholder No. 12 ¶2 Government..mitigates the inequality of power among particular persons. 1759 Robertson Hist. Scotl. i. Wks. 1813 I. 29 Princes of greater abilities were content to mitigate evils which they could not cure. 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 92 Nothing mitigated her sufferings so much as lint dipt in a solution of opium. 1824 J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. ii. iii. 256 He..gave himself up to the composition of those works which..mitigated his political sorrows. 1895 R. L. Douglas in Bookman Oct. 23/1 The king..does his best..to mitigate the disastrous effects of the blunders of his middle life. |
† b. pass. To be relieved of a burden. Obs. rare.
| 1644 Hastings Ingram Let. to Ld. Denbigh 19 Aug., Y⊇ countrie exspecteth by yo{supr} justice to be mittigated of yo{supr} to heavie pressures. |
4. a. To abate the rigour or severity of (a law); to render less stringent or oppressive.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 641/1 Yet are the lawes of the church mitigated. 1563 Homilies ii. Fasting ii. 98 b, It may lawfully..alter, change, or mitigate those Ecclesiasticall decrees & orders. 1683 Brit. Spec. 61 Where he sees the Laws rigorous or doubtful he may mitigate and interpret them. 1965 W. Mitchell tr. Huyghe's Relig. Orders Mod. World i. 6 The mendicant Orders..while in part adopting the monastic and canonical forms of organization..plainly mitigated them to enable their members to go out and preach..in the highways and by-ways. |
† b. To lessen the stringency of (an obligation).
| 1651 C. Cartwright Cert. Relig. i. 2 Your Majesty knows..my obligation to him, which difference in opinion shall never mitigate in point of affection. |
5. a. To reduce the severity of (a punishment). Also, † to lower, moderate (a price).
| a 1533 [see mitigate pa. pple.]. 1539 Act 31 Hen. VIII, c. 8 To diminish or mitigate the penalties. 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 7 Suche Lordes..shall..haue the same auctoritie to mittigate, and enhaunce the price of wynes..as..occasion shall require. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iv. i. 203, I haue spoke thus much To mittigate the iustice of thy plea. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. iv. i. (1651) 454 Those hard censures..are to be mitigated. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 76 That I may mitigate thir doom. 1850 Dickens Bill-Sticking in Househ. Words II. 604 They were..fined five pounds..but..the magistrate..mitigated the fine to fifteen shillings. 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 284 As she could not reverse the curse..she did what she could to mitigate it by substituting for death a sleep of a hundred years' duration. |
b. To render (a condition, custom) more humane.
| 1835 J. B. Robertson in Von Schlegel's Philos. Hist. (1846) 39 Christianity first mitigated, and then abolished slavery. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. (1877) I. ii. 252 Marcus Aurelius..mitigated the gladiatorial shows. |
6. To moderate, reduce to a more bearable degree (heat, cold, light); to temper the severity of (a climate).
| 1611 Tourneur Ath. Trag. ii. iii, That but mitigates The heat. 1611 Bible Wisd. xvi. 18 Sometime the flame was mitigated, that it might not burne vp the beasts that were sent against the vngodly. 1742 Collins Oriental Ecl. ii. 24 Or moss-crown'd fountains mitigate the day. 1837 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. i. viii. 226 The winter and summer temperatures being sometimes mitigated, and at others exaggerated, in the same latitude. 1840 Macaulay Ess., Clive (1899) 504 Many devices which now mitigate the heat of the climate, preserve health, and prolong life, were unknown. 1846 De Quincey Antigone Wks. 1860 XIV. 221 There were no stage lights; but..the general light of day was specially mitigated for that particular part of the theatre. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) viii. §398 This current is felt as far as the Equator, mitigating the rainless climate of Peru as it goes, and making it delightful. |
7. To lessen the gravity of (an offence); to palliate.
| 1719 Young Revenge iii. i, Then you must pardon me, If I presume to mitigate the crime. 1862 Burton Bk. Hunter (1863) 301 It may perhaps do something to mitigate Surtees's offence in the eye of the world. |
8. With a quality as obj.: To moderate (the severity, rigour, heinousness, etc., of something).
In recent times there has been a tendency to prefer this periphrastic use to the uses in which the vb. takes a thing or condition as its object.
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxviii. 34 The harshnesse of the metaphor was to bee mitigated. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. xxii. §20 We could greatly wish that the rigor of this their opinion were alayed and mitigated. 1660 Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 359 The strictness of the Lord's day was mitigated. 1702 J. Purcell Cholick (1714) 165 To Mitigate the Violence of the Pain. 1718 Free-thinker No. 10. 69 No Consideration upon Earth can mitigate the Heinousness of the Crime. 1849 James Woodman ix, One who..strove to mitigate the bloody rigour of a civil war. 1879 Froude Cæsar ix. 96 Cæsar interceded to mitigate the severity of the punishment. |
† 9. In physical senses: To render mild; to free from acridity; to make (land) fruitful. Obs.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 379 This tree..hath in it a certaine fat liquor..and entreth into compositions of sweet ointments, for to..mitigate the other oile. 1654 R. Codrington tr. Iustine xliii. 507 To exercise and mitigate the fields with ploughs. |
10. intr. To become mitigated; to grow milder or less severe. rare.
| 1633 T. James Voy. 68 The cold did very little mitigate. 1738 H. Brooke Jerus. Deliv. i. 43 But as his Years encrease, his Fires asswage Allay with Time, and mitigate with Age. 1880 M{supc}Carthy Own Times IV. lvii. 235 The bitterness of popular feeling had very much mitigated. |