Word.ws English Dictionary

allays

allays is the third-person singular simple present indicative of allay.

Meaning of allay

Verb

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
  2. (transitive) To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.
    • to allay the severity of affliction or the bitterness of adversity
    Synonyms:
    alleviate, abate
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To subside, abate, become peaceful.
    • And the wynde alayed, and there folowed a greate calme: and he sayde unto them: why are ye fearfull?1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Mark iiij
  4. (archaic) To mix (metals); to mix with a baser metal; to alloy; to deteriorate.
  5. (archaic, broadly) To make worse by the introduction of inferior elements.
    • Yet far be it from us to condemn all their works to be dross, because debased and allayed with superstitious intents […]1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warr

See all 7 meanings of allay

Questions about allays

What is allays the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Allays is the third-person singular simple present indicative of allay.

Words near allays in the dictionary

  1. allayeth
  2. allaying
  3. allayings
  4. allayment
  5. allayments
  6. allays
  7. Allbee
  8. Allbees
  9. Allbeury
  10. Allbright
  11. Allbrights

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: allays (page history and authors); allay (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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