allay

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“
Might change to love the king's black thought, and all his wrath allay --

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Definitions (25)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. transitive verb To reduce the intensity of; relieve: allay back pains. See Synonyms at relieve.
  2. transitive verb To calm or pacify; set to rest: allayed the fears of the worried citizens.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (16)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples (50)

  • Hence it follows that a figure is then most effectual when it appears in disguise Footnote 1: Reading with Cobet 2 To allay, then, this distrust which attaches to the use of figures we must call in the powerful aid of sublimity and passion. —  On the Sublime
  • [204] They accuse the Cabinet of having deliberately let loose popular passions which it afterward vainly sought to allay, and the facts which they allege in support of the charge have never been denied It was certainly to Italy's best interests to strike up a friendly agreement with the new state, if that were feasible, and some of the men in whose hands her destinies rested, feeling their responsibility, made a laudable attempt to come to an understanding. —  The Inside Story of the Peace Conference
  • It promoted the very struggle which it proposed to allay, for it admitted the existence of only one side to the question. —  Daniel Webster
  • He added that the devil was very stubborn and difficult to allay, and that it would cost three or four pagodas for the offerings necessary for compelling him to fly My relations, who were not very opulent, were astonished at the grievous imposition which the magician had laid on them. —  The Book of Noodles Stories of Simpletons; or, Fools and Their Follies
  • Vengeance was a fierce thirst in my Judaic heart which only Christian streams could ever allay or quench, and I judged the man I loved by self--not always a fitting standard of comparison And Gregory! —  Miriam Monfort A Novel
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allay:   allaying ·  allayed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (7)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English aleien, from Old English ālecgan, to lay down : ā-, intensive pref. + lecgan, to lay; see lay1.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (6)

  1. Early modern English also alay; from Middle English alayen, aleyen, earlier aleggen (preterit aleyde, past participle aleyd, alayd, aleid), from Anglo-Saxon ālecgan (preterit ālegde, ālēde, past participle ālegd, ālēd), lay down, withdraw, suppress, cause to cease (= Old High German irleccan, Middle High German erleggen, German erlegen = Gothic (Moesogothic) uslagjan, lay down), from ā-, English a-, + lecgan, English lay. The word should therefore, strictly, be spelled alay (cf. arise, abide, etc.); the spelling all-simulates a L. origin. The word was early confused in spelling and sense with several other words of Latin origin, namely, allay, allay, allege, allege: see these words. The senses mix and cannot be entirely separated.
  2. from allay, v.
  3. Early modern English also alay; from Middle English alayen, from Anglo-French aleyer, alayer, Old French allayer (French aloyer), a variant of alier, allier (later Middle English alicn, English ally), combine, alloy (cf. Spanish Portuguese ligar = Italian legare, allay, alloy, whence the noun, Spanish Portuguese liga = Italian lega, allay, alloy; the Spanish alear, alloy, is from the Old French), from Latin alligare, combine, join, from ad, to, + ligare, bind: see ally and alligate. Allay was more or less confused with allay, and with other similar forms: see allay. At a later period the F. aloyer and its verbal substantive aloi were erroneously explained as derived from à loi, to law, as if meaning ‘brought to the legal standard’: see alloy.
  4. Early modern English also alay; from Middle English alaye, aley, from Anglo-French aley, alay, Old French *alay, later aloy (French aloi), from aleyer, alayer (French aloyer), allay, alloy, mix: see allay, v., and alloy.
  5. from late Middle English alaye, aleye, alleye, from Old French aleier, alaier, declare on oath, from Latin allegare, mention, cite, adduce: see allege and allegation.
  6. Early modern English also alay; from late Middle English allay, from Anglo-French *alais, Old French eslais, from eslaissier, let out, from es- (from Latin ex), out, + laissier (French laisser), let, from Latin laxare, relax: see lax, laches, and cf. relay.
 

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