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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

At least with a physical or mental ailment some guilt can be assuaged.
Why I Choose to Be Child-Free: Readers Share Their Stories Harry Siegel February 26, 2013

Will the twenty percenters be assuaged if Hillary accepts the job of Secretary of State?
Will Secretary of State Be Enough for Hillary’s Army? Tina Brown November 17, 2008

Historical Examples

But her thirst of wealth is not of those that can be assuaged even by rivers of gold.
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 60, No. 374, December, 1846 Various

So Mr. Croy showed he could qualify the humble hand that assuaged him.
The Wings of the Dove, Volume 1 of 2 Henry James

Her wild despair seems to be assuaged by the thought that her son died gloriously.
Greek Women Mitchell Carroll

Next morning, however, this fever of fraternal suspense was assuaged.
The Doctor’s Family Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

A week’s rest and happiness have restored the colour to her comely face and assuaged all evil memories.
The Secret of Sarek Maurice Leblanc

The grief of Antonina could only be assuaged by the sufferings of her son.
The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon

But a whole aviary of highly colored songsters would not have assuaged Gay’s woe at that moment.
Timothy’s Quest Kate Douglas Wiggin

The bitterness of his sorrow is past; his thirst for vengeance is assuaged.
Studies of the Greek Poets (Vol I of 2) John Addington Symonds

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.