[f. as prec. + -ATION.]
1. The action or process of facilitating or rendering easy; an instance of this.
1619. N. Brent, trans. Sarpi’s The Historie of the Councel of Trent, viii. (1629), 769. For facilitation heereof, it [the Synod) doth renew some things decreed by the holy Canons, and Imperial lawes, in fauour of Ecclesiasticall immunitie.
1751. Johnson, The Rambler, No. 103, 12 March, ¶ 5. Who can believe that they who first watched the course of the stars, foresaw the use of their discoveries to the facilitation of commerce, or the mensuration of time?
1791. T. Newte, Tour in England and Scotland, 102. This facilitation of conveyance would contribute much to the improvements in the northern parts of the island.
1862. T. A. Trollope, A Lenten Journey in Umbria and the Marches, ix. 134. Impediment to free locomotion was a very much more important consideration than facilitation of it.
2. A means of facilitating or helping forwards; help. Const. to, towards. Now rare.
1648. W. Montagu, Miscellanea Spiritualia: or Devout Essaies, I. x. § 6. 118. Accomodate the mind to a generall habit of sincerity, which when it is referred to religious uses, proves a facilitation towards fidelity and perseverance in them.
1823. Lamb, Corr. (1870), 218. The impediments and facilitations to a sound belief are various.
