How to use allay in a sentence

12 example sentences · verb, noun

Allay means to make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm. Example: “Kissinger was obviously doing his best to allay our government's growing apprehension in connection with Nixon's forthcoming trip to Peking.”

Examples of allay by meaning

verbTo 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
Kissinger was obviously doing his best to allay our government's growing apprehension in connection with Nixon's forthcoming trip to Peking.1983, James C. H. Shen, “Dropping the First Shoe”, in Robert Myers, editor, The U.S. & Free China: How the U.S. Sold Out Its Ally...

verbTo alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.

to allay the severity of affliction or the bitterness of adversity

More sentences with allay

Our trepidation at being savaged by a vicious pig dog was soon allayed, however.2009, Evan McHugh, Birdsville, ReadHowYouWant, published 2011, page 139. From the entry sooky
Handwriting adds a personal touch and allays suspicion that you cut and pasted a breakup.txt file.2000, Lynn Harris, Breakup Girl to the Rescue!: A Superhero’s Guide to Love, and Lack Thereof, Back Bay Books, →ISBN, page 16. From the entry penpersonship
To allay our fears, we cracked the occasional joke about free love and began half-seriously calling it the Wild Oats Project.2015, Robin Rinaldi, The Wild Oats Project: One Woman's Midlife Quest for Passion at any Cost, page 49. From the entry wild oats
Mentalistic explanations allay curiosity and bring inquiry to a stop.1974, B. F. Skinner, About Behaviorism, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 15. From the entry mentalistic
Still Bill held the deposit slip in his hands half-afraidly, really wanting to hold the money, but the banker allayed those fears too.1934 November 29, “Writer Recalls Good Old Days When Storekeeper Was Banker for Farmer”, in The Oklahoma News, volume 29, number 47…. From the entry afraidly
Seriously speaking, it is a very real question whether social discontent can be allayed by heavy taxes on large fortunes and incomes.1924 April 12, Albert W[illiam] Atwood, “What Is Taxation For?”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 196…. From the entry ten-thousandaire
This feeling, grounded on the experience of centuries of oppression, was not to be allayed by smooth explanations on the part of the advocates of the Constitution.1912, Gustavus Myers, History of the Supreme Court of the United States, page 133. From the entry smooth
Rather than shorten the language it is infinitely broadened; instead of curt monosyllables, there are mellifluous, calming phrases, designed to allay suspicions, modify facts and divert one’s attention from difficulties.1984, Jonathon Green, “Introduction”, in Newspeak: A Dictionary of Jargon, London: Routledge & Kegal Paul plc, ISBN 978-0-7100-9685-2…. From the entry newspeak

Meaning of allay

verb To make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm.
verb To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.
verb To subside, abate, become peaceful.

Full definition of allay

Questions about allay in a sentence

How do you use allay in a sentence?: Allay is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Kissinger was obviously doing his best to allay our government's growing apprehension in connection with Nixon's forthcoming trip to Peking.”
What is a short sentence with allay?: “to allay popular excitement”
What does allay mean?: Allay means to make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm.

Adapted from Wiktionary: allay (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use allay in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/allay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.