different between adapt vs assuage

English

Etymology

From Middle French adapter, from Latin adaptare (“to fit to”), from ad (“to”) + aptare (“to make fit”), from aptus (“fit”); see apt.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??dæpt/
• Rhymes: -æpt

Verb

adapt (third-person singular simple present adapts, present participle adapting, simple past and past participle adapted)

1. (transitive) To make suitable; to make to correspond; to fit or suit

   Synonym: proportion

2. (transitive) To fit by alteration; to modify or remodel for a different purpose; to adjust

3. (transitive) To make by altering or fitting something else; to produce by change of form or character

4. (intransitive) To make oneself comfortable to a new thing.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

adapt (comparative more adapt, superlative most adapt)

1. Adapted; fit; suited; suitable.
   • c. 1709, Jonathan Swift, Merlin's Prophecy

     This prediction, though somewhat obscure, is wonderfully adapt.

Translations

References

• adapt in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• APDTA

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??dap(t)/

Verb

adapt (third-person singular present adapts, present participle adaptin, past adaptit, past participle adaptit)

1. to adapt

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

English

Alternative forms

• asswage (obsolete)
• tasswage (obsolete, poetic)

Etymology

From Middle English aswagen, from Old French asuagier (“to appease, to calm”), from Vulgar Latin *assuavi? (“I sweeten, I 'butter up', I calm”), derived from Latin ad- + suavis (“sweet”) + -?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??swe?d?/
• Hyphenation: as?suage
• Rhymes: -e?d?

Verb

assuage (third-person singular simple present assuages, present participle assuaging, simple past and past participle assuaged)

1. (transitive) To lessen the intensity of, to mitigate or relieve (hunger, emotion, pain etc.).

   • Refreshing winds the summer's heat assuage.

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord

     to assuage the sorrows of a desolate old man

   • 1864 November 21, Abraham Lincoln (signed) or John Hay, letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston

     I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost.

2. (transitive) To pacify or soothe (someone).
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To calm down, become less violent (of passion, hunger etc.); to subside, to abate.

Derived terms

• assuagement
• assuager
• unassuaged

Translations

References

• assuage in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• assuage in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “assuage”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• sausage

Middle English

Verb

assuage

1. Alternative form of aswagen