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

the only joy is the momentary spasm of s-xual gratification; the only happiness that of (temporarily) allayed jealousy.
david’s bookclub: sodom and gomorrah david frum september 28, 2012

historical examples

the parched mouth and throat craved no more perpetually for the cooling drinks that had not allayed their misery.
bella donna robert hichens

some rain fell towards night, which laid the dust and allayed the heat.
three years in the federal cavalry willard glazier

the most fond and nervous of mothers suffered her fears to be allayed.
social transformations of the victorian age t. h. s. (thomas hay sweet) escott

my anxiety was not at all allayed by a casual encounter with crofter in the evening.
tom, d-ck and harry talbot baines reed

examine the stools carefully so that anxiety may be allayed when the foreign substance is seen.
papers on health john kirk

my emotions were not allayed by the sight; but i kept all expression of them out of view.
that affair next door anna katharine green

i allayed therese’s anxiety by telling her that i could easily contrive to leave the city without being observed.
the memoires of casanova, complete jacques casanova de seingalt

one of my apprehensions was allayed by the sight: the family was still there.
the wild huntress mayne reid

for the first time a secret anxiety and distress of mind, which she had confided to no one, was allayed.
the shoulders of atlas mary e. wilkins freeman

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.