allay
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /əˈleɪ/
Verb

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.
Translations Translations Noun

allay (plural allays)

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



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