allay

• alay (obsolete)

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 erlegen (“to impose, cause to succumb, kill”), Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (uslagjan, “to lay down”). In Middle English the word was identical to forms of allege and alloy, leading to much overlapping of senses.

• IPA^(key): /əˈleɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ

allay (third-person singular simple present allays, present participle allaying, simple past and past participle allayed)

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

   to allay popular excitement

   to allay the tumult of the passions

   • 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet:

     He had to pretend to be drunk in order to allay the suspicions which might have been aroused by his appearance at the gate.

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

   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.
   • 1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warr:

     Yet far be it from us to condemn all their works to be dross, because debased and allayed with superstitious intents […]

• alleviate; check; repress; assuage; appease; abate; subdue; destroy; compose; soothe; calm; quiet

allay (plural allays)

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

• allay in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• Layla

allay

1. harvest or digging up of potatoes or tubers

allay

1. (transitive) to dig, dig up, dig out, excavate; to harvest tubers

• aymuray
• pallay