To Encourage Someone
To Cheer Up Someone, To Encourage
transitive verb, godan verb
Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means encourage and the verb vocab version is to encourage someone (or to encourage).
Think about encouraging a hag (はげ). She needs encouragement because she's a hag, and nobody likes her much because of that.
落ち込んでいる人を励ますのは難しい。
It’s hard to cheer up someone who’s depressed.