assuage
as-suage / ə-swāj
verb 1. to lessen, to ease, to make less severe By telling our woes we often assuage them. French Proverb 2. to calm or comfort; to soothe; to mollify 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, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. From a Letter to Lydia Bixby from Abraham Lincoln, November 21, 1864 3. to satisfy or relieve (hunger, thirst, etc.) Food, however, became scarce, and I often spent the whole day searching in vain for a few acorns to assuage the pangs of hunger. From “Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley, 1797 - 1851