MITIGATE most nearly means:

MITIGATE means to make less severe, serious, or painful. Example: 'Medications can mitigate the symptoms.' From Latin 'mitigare' (to soften or ripen), with 'mitis' meaning soft or mild. Synonyms: alleviate, lessen, reduce, moderate, ease, soften. Antonyms: aggravate, worsen, intensify, exacerbate. Common collocations: 'mitigate risk' (in business and military planning); 'mitigating circumstances' (in legal contexts, factors that reduce blame or punishment). Related: MITIGATION (the act or process of mitigating). Don't confuse with: MILITATE (to have force as evidence — 'the facts militate against his theory'); IMITATE (to copy). These three words sound similar but have very different meanings — ASVAB sometimes presents distractors that exploit such confusion. Memorizing word families and being precise about pronunciation helps avoid these errors.