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▪ I. † ˈmitigate, pa. pple. and ppl. a. Obs.
Forms: see mitigate v.; also 6 Sc. mitigait.
[ad. L. mītigātus, pa. pple. of mītigāre: see next.]
Mitigated, alleviated.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 387 Hit was answerede to theyme by Apollo Delphicus that pestilence to be mitigate [L. sedari] if [etc.]. Ibid. VII. 35 But their myndes not mitigate þerwith [L. Sed adhuc non sedatis animis]. 1531Elyot Gov. ii. vi, The wise prince with that playne confession was mitigate. a1533Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) L vj, His chastysement was mitigate, and more easye. 1560A. L. tr. Calvin's Foure Serm. Song Ezech. iv, That the pain should be mitigate. 1560Rolland Crt. Venus Prol. 113 Sumpart ar dry and sum are mitigait. 1592in Neal Hist. Purit. (1732) I. 551 That some more mitigate and peaceable course might be taken therein.
▪ II. mitigate, v.|ˈmɪtɪgeɪt|
Also 5 myttygate, 6 mytygate, metigat(e, mit(t)igat, mittegate, 6–7 mytigate, mittigate, 7 medigate; also pa. tense 6 Sc. metigat.
[f. L. mītigāt-, ppl. stem of mītigāre, f. mīti-s mild, gentle. Cf. F. mitiger (OF. also mitiguer), Sp. mitigar, It. mitigare.]
1. trans. To render (a person, his mind, disposition, or mood) milder, more gentle, or less hostile; to appease, mollify. Now rare.
1432–50,1531[see mitigate pa. pple.]. 1513More Rich. III, Wks. 57/1 Where the king toke displeasure, she would mitigate & appease his mind. 1584Cogan Haven Health ii. (1636) 21 The Chesse..was invented..to mitigate the minds or hearts of Tyrants. 1642Declar. Lords & Com. London 8 Such Commissioners were mittigated, in respect of some clauses perilous to the Commissioners, and approved of for the time to come. 1761Hume Hist. Eng. I. viii. 178 The Cardinal of Pavia..tooke care..to mitigate the pope by the accounts which he sent of that princes conduct. 1855Pusey Doctr. Real Presence Note S. §75. 694 S. Leo the Great..mitigated Genseric, when Rome was taken. 1859J. Brown Rab & F. (1862) 18 The severe little man was mitigated, and condescended to say ‘Rab, ma man, puir Rabbie’.
2. a. To render (anger, hatred, etc.) less fierce or violent; to appease.
1494Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxxv. 271 The preestys..to the entent to myttygate..the crueltye of the sayd tyrauntes, dyd open them the ornamentys of the sayde churche. 1513Bradshaw St. Werburge ii. 1554 O glorious virgin..Metigate the malice..of Richard our lorde. 1558Bp. Watson Sev. Sacram. xviii 116 To mitigate Goddes dyspleasure. a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 302 Thir goode wordis..metigat and assuadgit the Duike of Albanieis anger. 1579–80North Plutarch, Sylla (1595) 503 To mitigate somewhat the peoples ill will towards him. 1656in Verney Mem. (1894) III. 317 [Luce begs Sir Ralph to do his best] to medigate my lady's anger against her daur. 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. v. (1778) II. 90 Montezuma addressed them with every argument that could mitigate their rage. 1855Prescott Philip II, I. iii. vi. 379 The..envoys interposed to mitigate the king's anger. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 17 His [Socrates'] hostility towards the sophists..was not mitigated in later life.
†b. To relax the violence of (one's actions, etc.).
c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. vii. (Lion & Mouse) xl, To remit sum tyme ane grit offence, And mitigate with mercy crueltie. 1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 39 Mitigate by measure your proude hastie language. 1549Compl. Scot. Prol. 13 Dame fortoune vil mittigat hyr auen crualte.
3. a. To alleviate (physical or mental pain); to lessen the violence of (a disease); to lighten the burden of (an evil of any kind).
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) V. 389 A man nesynge, peple beynge by use to say ‘Criste helpe the', and make a crosse on their mowthe to mitigate that passion. 1502W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione iii. liii. 241 Comforte me, good lorde, in my exyle mytygate my sorowe. 1541R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. O j b, Anoynte it [sc. the place] with oyle of Roses..to mytygate the smert. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. 5 It is wisedome..warely to mitigate, by protestacion, the evill that is in theim. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. x. 26 And dieted with fasting every day, The swelling of his woundes to mitigate. 1591Sparry tr. Cattan's Geomancie B ij, The Iasper stone..hath vertue to mittigate Kernels of the flesh. 1655Culpepper, etc. Riverius vi. i. 132 At first the pain wil seem to encrease; but afterward, it wil be mitigated, and cease. 1715Addison Freeholder No. 12 ⁋2 Government..mitigates the inequality of power among particular persons. 1759Robertson Hist. Scotl. i. Wks. 1813 I. 29 Princes of greater abilities were content to mitigate evils which they could not cure. 1804Abernethy Surg. Obs. 92 Nothing mitigated her sufferings so much as lint dipt in a solution of opium. 1824J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. ii. iii. 256 He..gave himself up to the composition of those works which..mitigated his political sorrows. 1895R. L. Douglas in Bookman Oct. 23/1 The king..does his best..to mitigate the disastrous effects of the blunders of his middle life.
†b. pass. To be relieved of a burden. Obs. rare.
1644Hastings Ingram Let. to Ld. Denbigh 19 Aug., Y⊇ countrie exspecteth by yor justice to be mittigated of yor to heavie pressures.
4. a. To abate the rigour or severity of (a law); to render less stringent or oppressive.
1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 641/1 Yet are the lawes of the church mitigated. 1563Homilies ii. Fasting ii. 98 b, It may lawfully..alter, change, or mitigate those Ecclesiasticall decrees & orders. 1683Brit. Spec. 61 Where he sees the Laws rigorous or doubtful he may mitigate and interpret them. 1965W. Mitchell tr. Huyghe's Relig. Orders Mod. World i. 6 The mendicant Orders..while in part adopting the monastic and canonical forms of organization..plainly mitigated them to enable their members to go out and preach..in the highways and by-ways.
†b. To lessen the stringency of (an obligation).
1651C. Cartwright Cert. Relig. i. 2 Your Majesty knows..my obligation to him, which difference in opinion shall never mitigate in point of affection.
5. a. To reduce the severity of (a punishment). Also, † to lower, moderate (a price).
a1533[see mitigate pa. pple.]. 1539Act 31 Hen. VIII, c. 8 To diminish or mitigate the penalties. 1542–3Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 7 Suche Lordes..shall..haue the same auctoritie to mittigate, and enhaunce the price of wynes..as..occasion shall require. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. iv. i. 203, I haue spoke thus much To mittigate the iustice of thy plea. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. iv. i. (1651) 454 Those hard censures..are to be mitigated. 1667Milton P.L. x. 76 That I may mitigate thir doom. 1850Dickens Bill-Sticking in Househ. Words II. 604 They were..fined five pounds..but..the magistrate..mitigated the fine to fifteen shillings. 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 284 As she could not reverse the curse..she did what she could to mitigate it by substituting for death a sleep of a hundred years' duration.
b. To render (a condition, custom) more humane.
1835J. B. Robertson in Von Schlegel's Philos. Hist. (1846) 39 Christianity first mitigated, and then abolished slavery. 1869Lecky Europ. Mor. (1877) I. ii. 252 Marcus Aurelius..mitigated the gladiatorial shows.
6. To moderate, reduce to a more bearable degree (heat, cold, light); to temper the severity of (a climate).
1611Tourneur Ath. Trag. ii. iii, That but mitigates The heat. 1611Bible Wisd. xvi. 18 Sometime the flame was mitigated, that it might not burne vp the beasts that were sent against the vngodly. 1742Collins Oriental Ecl. ii. 24 Or moss-crown'd fountains mitigate the day. 1837Lyell Princ. Geol. I. i. viii. 226 The winter and summer temperatures being sometimes mitigated, and at others exaggerated, in the same latitude. 1840Macaulay Ess., Clive (1899) 504 Many devices which now mitigate the heat of the climate, preserve health, and prolong life, were unknown. 1846De Quincey Antigone Wks. 1860 XIV. 221 There were no stage lights; but..the general light of day was specially mitigated for that particular part of the theatre. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) viii. §398 This current is felt as far as the Equator, mitigating the rainless climate of Peru as it goes, and making it delightful.
7. To lessen the gravity of (an offence); to palliate.
1719Young Revenge iii. i, Then you must pardon me, If I presume to mitigate the crime. 1862Burton Bk. Hunter (1863) 301 It may perhaps do something to mitigate Surtees's offence in the eye of the world.
8. With a quality as obj.: To moderate (the severity, rigour, heinousness, etc., of something).
In recent times there has been a tendency to prefer this periphrastic use to the uses in which the vb. takes a thing or condition as its object.
1571Golding Calvin on Ps. lxviii. 34 The harshnesse of the metaphor was to bee mitigated. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. xxii. §20 We could greatly wish that the rigor of this their opinion were alayed and mitigated. 1660Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 359 The strictness of the Lord's day was mitigated. 1702J. Purcell Cholick (1714) 165 To Mitigate the Violence of the Pain. 1718Free-thinker No. 10. 69 No Consideration upon Earth can mitigate the Heinousness of the Crime. 1849James Woodman ix, One who..strove to mitigate the bloody rigour of a civil war. 1879Froude Cæsar ix. 96 Cæsar interceded to mitigate the severity of the punishment.
†9. In physical senses: To render mild; to free from acridity; to make (land) fruitful. Obs.
1601Holland Pliny I. 379 This tree..hath in it a certaine fat liquor..and entreth into compositions of sweet ointments, for to..mitigate the other oile. 1654R. Codrington tr. Iustine xliii. 507 To exercise and mitigate the fields with ploughs.
10. intr. To become mitigated; to grow milder or less severe. rare.
1633T. James Voy. 68 The cold did very little mitigate. 1738H. Brooke Jerus. Deliv. i. 43 But as his Years encrease, his Fires asswage Allay with Time, and mitigate with Age. 1880McCarthy Own Times IV. lvii. 235 The bitterness of popular feeling had very much mitigated. |