assuagement

plural assuagements

1. countableuncountableThe action of assuaging; appeasement.

   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.

   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), [Australia]: Project Gutenberg Australia, published May 2015, 4th book (The Story of the Clissolds—Tangle of Desires)

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   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.

   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

   [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.

   1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “[The Doctrine of Epicurus.] Chap[ter] 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

   Synonyms: alleviation

2. countableuncountableThe condition of being assuaged.

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

   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

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   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.

   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

   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.

   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

   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.

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

   Synonyms: relief, respite

3. countableuncountableAn assuaging medicine or application.

   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.

   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