What's the difference between lessen and mitigate?

Lessen


Definition:

  • (a.) To make less; to reduce; to make smaller, or fewer; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; as, to lessen a kingdom, or a population; to lessen speed, rank, fortune.
  • (v. i.) To become less; to shrink; to contract; to decrease; to be diminished; as, the apparent magnitude of objects lessens as we recede from them; his care, or his wealth, lessened.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The transmission of alcoholism and its effects are thereby lessened for future generations of children of alcoholics.
  • (2) Bacteria can stop or lessen antibodies synthesis process.
  • (3) Behavioral variables, including interreinforcement interval and drug self-administration history, appear to be important determinants of whether or not reinforcement will be demonstrated, particularly among the benzodiazepines; but the range of conditions under which behavioral and pharmacological variables interact to promote or lessen the likelihood of self-administration of these drugs remains to be determined experimentally.
  • (4) "It is in my power to lessen their sentence – it's not excluded that that will happen."
  • (5) Diminished pressor responsiveness was considered to be due to concurrent reduction of central sympathetic vasomotor activity, because sympathetic nerve responses to hypothalamic stimulation were appreciably lessened in tripamide-treated SHR.
  • (6) The introduction of biological valves or of valves with a lessened risk of embolism is highly desirable in such cases.
  • (7) In this paper, these and related facts were summarized and some precautions were suggested to lessen the increase of resistant strains in this country.
  • (8) Recent improvements in surgical techniques and selective embolization have lessened the risks of surgical excision, decreased the blood loss, and diminished the time required for resection.
  • (9) We have previously shown that in the cat, taurine is an osmoprotective molecule that lessens mortality, neurological morbidity, and brain-cell dehydration during chronic hypernatremic dehydration.
  • (10) Rats given Sendai virus concurrently with the FCA, or any time after FCA was injected, did not have a lessened severity of the arthritic reaction, as compared with that in control animals.
  • (11) A decrease in relative risks since diagnosis of the first primary cancer was seen that may partly be attributed to a lessening of the intensity of medical surveillance with time.
  • (12) Incorporation of porosity into the grafts, which is necessary for tissue ingrowth, is expected to lessen this difference.
  • (13) The data strongly suggest that conferring the sick role on the mentally ill does not lessen rejection, but may, in some instances, increase social rejection.
  • (14) In contrast, hydroxyurea treatment was associated with a 1.5-fold to sevenfold increase in F cells and a 2.3- to 27-fold increase in the percentage of Hb F. In the three patients whose response reached a plateau, hydroxyurea treatment was associated with lessened hemolysis, decreased serum bilirubin and lactate dehydrogenase levels, and prolonged 51chromium-labeled RBC survival.
  • (15) O’Malley also called for: The relationship between federal immigration law enforcement and local law enforcement to be significantly lessened.
  • (16) Utilization of outpatient surgical centers helps reduce the cost of health care, lessens the disruption of patients' personal lives, and promotes their recovery through early ambulation and a lower incidence of postoperative nosocomial complications.
  • (17) It also lessened the hypertonus of isolated guinea-pig trachea caused by pilocarpine.
  • (18) The use of tissue allografts lessens patient morbidity and suffering and in many cases spares limbs and lives.
  • (19) Unlike acute combinations, chronic imipramine lessened the rate reducing effect of methadone.
  • (20) The results of a bronchial challenge to Aspergillus species, however, remained positive; these positive results suggest that long-term memory immune mechanisms may play an important role in the pathogenesis of hypersensitivity pneumonitis and lessen the importance of precipitins in establishing a diagnosis.

Mitigate


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make less severe, intense, harsh, rigorous, painful, etc.; to soften; to meliorate; to alleviate; to diminish; to lessen; as, to mitigate heat or cold; to mitigate grief.
  • (v. t.) To make mild and accessible; to mollify; -- applied to persons.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In mitigation, Gareth Jones, defending, said: "The first comment [he] wrote was in relation to Fabrice Muamba.
  • (2) The small numbers involved (29) and the difficulties in matching subjects may have mitigated against demonstrating a statistically significant difference between the two groups.
  • (3) The news comes one week after Marshall announced, in an email to staff, that there would be a shift in research priorities, away from understanding the nature of climate change, and towards adaptation and mitigation.
  • (4) Golding said the government would not soften its stance on drug trafficking and it intended to use a proportion of revenues from its licensing authority to support a public education campaign to discourage pot-smoking by young people and mitigate public health consequences.
  • (5) This has improved the capacity of the neuroanaesthetist to mitigate the inevitable fluctuations which occur and prevent their ill effects.
  • (6) The survey was designed to assess whether these individuals followed the 1986 EPA guidelines for follow-up testing and mitigation.
  • (7) Despite doing a study of mitigation options, no decisions are planned until 2012.
  • (8) The level of disruption to services will vary widely and depend on the number of staff joining the strike, the mitigating impact of the NHS’s contingency planning and how many patients need acute care, such as A&E care or surgery.
  • (9) Aid workers have warned that children in the disaster zone left by typhoon Haiyan are particularly vulnerable, as they set up child-focused services to mitigate the impact.
  • (10) Regression analyses suggested that such aggression-inhibitory effects of an apology were mediated by impression improvement, emotional mitigation, and reduction in desire for an apology within the victims.
  • (11) At present, however, technical and economic factors combine to mitigate against MRI.
  • (12) The IPCC is charged with providing a scientific, balanced assessment about what's known and what's known about climate change There are lots of organisations ringing bells The IPCC is more like a belltower, which people can climb up to get a clear view 8.41am BST Al Gore , the former US vice-president and winner of the Nobel peace prize for his work on climate change , has responded to the IPCC report by saying it shows the need for a switch to low carbon sources of energy (note his emphasis is on mitigation, i.e.
  • (13) Potential strategies to avoid the precipitating antigen antibody reaction or to mitigate the resulting effector cascade are described.
  • (14) The results of this study serve to mitigate concern over the possible carcinogenicity of MDA in the diet, since less than 10% of the MDA in several foods containing highly unsaturated fatty acids was found in the free form.
  • (15) The deputy president, William Ruto, said it is now up to the developed world to mitigate the fallout, suggesting that other countries including the UK should resettle the refugees who could soon be kicked out of Kenya.
  • (16) Application of the formula in 3 patients with the juvenile CLF, the M. Batten-Spielmeyer-Vogt, resulted in a mitigated course of the disease.
  • (17) "The one thing that we have come up with is the importance of adaptation and mitigation choices.
  • (18) There is an art as well as a science to accurately presenting devastating facts while mitigating potentially unnecessary emotional damage.
  • (19) The issue is the capacity of the law to mitigate it.
  • (20) Delivery of oxygenated autologous blood to the myocardium at risk during inflation may help mitigate this ischemia.