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to make milder or less severe; relieve; ease; mitigate:
to assuage one’s grief; to assuage one’s pain.
to appease; satisfy; allay; relieve:
to assuage one’s hunger.
to soothe, calm, or mollify:
to assuage his fears; to assuage her anger.
Contemporary Examples

Remind me again, how is that supposed to assuage the irritation of recently laid-off employees?
The $1 Club Paul Kedrosky January 30, 2009

There is also the related question of how far he might go to assuage them.
Romney and the Right-Wing Shakedown Michael Tomasky March 19, 2012

But the GOP could assuage that tension by promulgating a hard-core, Republican version of gay and straight marriage.
How Can the Republicans Take Back the Majority? Megan McArdle November 8, 2012

In the Obama-Clinton battle, you did not by and large see the two Democrats trying to assuage the concerns of the liberal base.
Michael Tomasky: Why Iowa Is Mitt Romney’s Do-or-Die Moment Michael Tomasky January 1, 2012

To assuage her pride, she also volunteered at the center, allowing her to claim the free food was her due.
The New Blue-Collar Hungry Sasha Abramsky November 17, 2009

Historical Examples

What will mortals not do, to what lengths have men not gone, to assuage the pangs of hunger?
Jesus the Christ James Edward Talmage

But his well-meant attempt to assuage the stricken creature’s wo was futile.
Within the Law Marvin Dana

Louis said every thing that cheering anticipations could devise, to assuage this impatience.
The Pastor’s Fire-side Vol. 2 (of 4) Jane Porter

It was Roger’s first experience in trying to assuage the grief of any one else.
The Forbidden Trail Honor Willsie

The agitation of his grief began to assuage and he could now listen calmly and without emotion to her words.
Within the Temple of Isis Belle M. Wagner

verb (transitive)
to soothe, moderate, or relieve (grief, pain, etc)
to give relief to (thirst, appetite, etc); satisfy
to pacify; calm
v.

c.1300, from Anglo-French assuager, Old French assoagier “soften, moderate, alleviate, calm, soothe, pacify,” from Vulgar Latin *adsuaviare, from Latin ad- “to” (see ad-) + suavis “sweet, agreeable” (see sweet). For sound development in French, cf. deluge from Latin diluvium, abridge from abbreviare. Related: Assuaged; assuaging.