different between weaken vs assuage

English

Etymology

weak +? -en

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?wik?n/
• Rhymes: -i?k?n

Verb

weaken (third-person singular simple present weakens, present participle weakening, simple past and past participle weakened)

1. (transitive) To make weaker or less strong.
2. (intransitive) To become weaker or less strong.

Translations

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