assuagement

From assuage +‎ -ment.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /əˈsweɪd͡ʒmənt/
• Hyphenation: as‧suage‧ment

assuagement (countable and uncountable, plural assuagements)

1. The action of assuaging; appeasement.
   • 1567, Ovid, “The Eleventh Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, , London: Willyam Seres , →OCLC, folio 142, verso, lines 517–520:

     He many woordes of comfort ſpake her feare away too chace. / But nought hee could perſwade therein too make her like the cace. / This laſt aſſwagement of her greef he added in the end, / Which was the onely thing that made her loving hart too bend.

   • 1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “[The Doctrine of Epicurus.] Chapter XXIII. Of Fortitude, against Discontent of Mind.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, , volume III, London: Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, , →OCLC, 5th part (Containing the Epicurean Sect), 3rd part of philosophy (Ethick, or Morals), page 261:

     [T]he aſſwagement of his [a wise man's] diſcontent conſiſts in two things, formerly preſcribed as remedies againſt corporeall pain; viz. Diverſion of his thoughts from his loſſe, or the cause of it; and an application of them to thoſe things, which he knowes to be gratefull and pleaſant to his mind.

   • 1926, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “§ 7. Empty House.”, in The World of William Clissold: A Novel at a New Angle (ebook no. 1500551h.html), : Project Gutenberg Australia, published May 2015, 4th book (The Story of the Clissolds—Tangle of Desires):

     I had thought two years ago that sex was simply a sensuous craving, an appetite needing assuagement and trailing with it a sense of beauty.

2. The condition of being assuaged.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. , part II (books IV–VI), London: [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 40, page 422:

     So all that night they paſt in great diſeaſe, / Till that the morning, bringing earely light / To guide mens labours, brought them alſo eaſe, / And ſome aſſwagement of their painefull plight.

   • 1797, Ann Radcliffe, chapter 7, in The Italian, or The Confessional of the Black Penitents‎, volume II, London: T. Cadell Junior & W. Davies, pages 234–235:

     This was the sole consideration, that afforded any degree of assuagement to her sufferings.

   • 1928, Radclyffe Hall, chapter 7, in The Well of Loneliness, London: Jonathan Cape; republished New York, N.Y.: Covici Friede Publishers, October 1932, →OCLC, book 1, section 2, pages 74–75:

     Writing, it was like a heavenly balm, it was like the flowing out of deep waters, it was like the lifting of a load from the spirit; it brought with it a sense of relief, of assuagement.

   • 1959, Mervyn Peake, chapter 34, in Titus Alone, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode:

     He leaned forward pressing the tightened muscles below his ribs and then began to rock back and forth, like a pendulum. So regular was the rocking that it would seem that no assuagement of grief could result from so mechanical a rhythm.

3. An assuaging medicine or application.
   • 1836, Richard Chenevix Trench, “A Legend of Toledo”, in The Story of Justin Martyr, and Other Poems, 2nd edition, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, stanza 1, page 175:

     Far down below the Christian captives pine / In dungeon depths, and whoso dares to bring / Assuagements for their wounds, or food, or wine, / Must brave the fiercest vengeance of the king.

• (action of assuaging): alleviation
• (condition of being assuaged): relief, respite