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allay

Pronunciation: /əˈleɪ/

The English word “allay” has 7 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm.
  2. To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.
  3. To subside, abate, become peaceful.
  4. To mix (metals); to mix with a baser metal; to alloy; to deteriorate.
  5. To make worse by the introduction of inferior elements.

noun

  1. Alleviation; abatement; check.
  2. An alloy.

Etymology

From Middle English alayen, aleyen, aleggen, from Old English āleċġan (“to put, place, lay down, lay aside, throw down, give up, cease from, abandon; put down, allay, suppress, abolish, conquer, destroy, overcome, refute; lay upon, inflict, impose upon; diminish, take away, refuse, lessen, withhold”), from Proto-Germanic *uzlagjaną (“to lay down”), equivalent to a- + lay. Cognate with German…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.