Mitigate is sometimes used as an intransitive (followed by
against) where militate might be expected. Even though Faulkner
used it <some intangible and invisible social force that
mitigates against him — William Faulkner> and one critic thinks
it should be called an American idiom, it is usually considered
a mistake. Examples of MITIGATE Emergency funds are being
provided to help mitigate the effects of the disaster. medicines
used to mitigate a patient's suffering At the far end of the
room is a sliding glass door, taped with an X to mitigate
shattering. The framing is flimsy, and rattles from mortar
rounds even a half mile away. —William Langewiesche, Atlantic,
May 2005 … a genre novel whose inevitable cinematic ending
doesn't mitigate the visceral and emotional power of what has
come before. It lingers in the memory like a very bad dream.
—Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books, 14 Aug. 2003 For
65 holes Norman dominated the classic rolling fairways and
small, subtle greens of Olympic … with driving a