Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
- Serving to palliate; serving to extenuate or mitigate.
- (medicine) Minimising the progression of a disease and relieving undesirable symptoms for as long as possible, rather than attempting to cure the (usually incurable) disease.
reducing progression and relieving symptoms
palliative (plural palliatives)
- (medicine) Something that palliates, particularly a palliative medicine.
- The radiation and chemotherapy were only palliatives.
- palliative in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- palliative in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- palliative at OneLook Dictionary Search