• IPA: /əˈleɪ/

allay (allays, present participle allaying; past and past participle allayed)

1. (transitive) To make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm.

   Synonyms: appease, assuage, compose, soothe, calm, quiet

   to allay popular excitement

   to allay the tumult of the passions

2. (transitive) To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.

   Synonyms: alleviate, abate

   to allay the severity of affliction or the bitterness of adversity

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To subside, abate, become peaceful.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Mark IV:

     And the wynde alayed, and there folowed a greate calme: and he sayde unto them: why are ye fearfull?

   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iv]:

     For raging wind blows up incessant showers,
     And when the rage allays the rain begins.

4. (archaic) To mix (metals); to mix with a baser metal; to alloy; to deteriorate.
5. (archaic, by extension) To make worse by the introduction of inferior elements.

• French: apaiser, pacifier
• German: beruhigen, dämpfen
• Portuguese: aquietar
• Spanish: aquietar, calmar

• French: soulager
• German: erleichtern
• Portuguese: aliviar
• Spanish: aliviar, mitigar

allay (plural allays)

1. Alleviation; abatement; check.
2. (obsolete) An alloy.