Relieve, mitigate (9)
I believe the answer is:
alleviate
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">This clue is a double definition.<br/ ><br/ >'<span class="explanation-format__original">relieve</span>' is the first definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(synonyms)</span><br/ ><br/ >'<span class="explanation-format__original">mitigate</span>' is the second definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(thesaurus)</span><br/ ><br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for alleviate that I've seen before include "Make less severe, say suffering" , "Lessen severity" , "bring relief" , "Make (suffering etc) easier to bear" , "To mollify" .)