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to put (fear, doubt, suspicion, anger, etc.) to rest; calm; quiet.
to lessen or relieve; mitigate; alleviate:
to allay pain.
historical examples

in colic from acute indigestion it is a very convenient means of quieting the child by allaying the pain.
the eugenic marriage, volume iv. (of iv.) grant hague

what they heard there, would increase their fear, instead of allaying it.
history of civilization in england, vol. 3 of 3 henry thomas buckle

it has recently published a series of articles for the purpose of stimulating faith and allaying doubt.
arrows of freethought george w. foote

was there then any means of allaying these billows, of calming this tumultuous sea?
in search of the castaways jules verne

these measures, instead of allaying, only inflamed the p-ssions of the populace the more.
history of the rise of the huguenots henry baird

instead of allaying the eagerness of the emir, the words excited it the more.
the prince of india, volume i lew. wallace

the mule, more cautious and cunning, adopts another method of allaying his thirst.
with the world’s great travellers, volume 2 various

this led to bickerings, which the missionary often had trouble in allaying.
among the wild tribes of the afghan frontier t. l. pennell

he thinks more of allaying the anxiety of his wife than of currying favor with his ruler.
rabbi and priest milton goldsmith

diluted with water, it often succeeds in allaying itching and irritation of the skin when all other means fail.
cooley’s cyclopdia of practical receipts and collateral information in the arts, manufactures, professions, and trades…, sixth edition, volume i arnold cooley

verb
to relieve (pain, grief, etc) or be relieved
(transitive) to reduce (fear, anger, etc)
v.

old english alecgan “to put down, remit, give up,” a germanic compound (cf. gothic uslagjan, old high german irleccan, german erlegen), from a- “down, aside” + lecgan “to lay” (see lay).

early middle english pr-nunciations of -y- and -g- were not always distinct, and the word was confused in middle english with various senses of romanic-derived alloy and allege, especially the latter in an obsolete sense of “to lighten,” from latin ad- “to” + levis (see lever).

amid the overlapping of meanings that thus arose, there was developed a perplexing network of uses of allay and allege, that belong entirely to no one of the original vbs., but combine the senses of two or more of them. [oed]

the double -l- is 17c., a mistaken latinism. related: allayed; allaying.