- 1緩和；平息；減輕（恐懼、疑慮、不安）。偏書面。
To allay a feeling is to make it less sharp — especially fear, worry, or suspicion. You allay someone's fears, allay concern, allay public anger. The feeling does not always vanish; it sits more quietly. News, speeches, and careful writing use this verb a lot; in ordinary talk people more often say calm, ease, or quiet. You allay a feeling (or the worry in a person), not a noise and not a delay. Though actually, older and more literary English also allays pain, hunger, or thirst — 'make it bite less' — but that use is out. Today's word is almost always this 'make the fear smaller' verb, and the noun is rare.
組成From Old English āleċġan, 'to lay down / put aside,' from a- + lay (Proto-Germanic *uzlagjaną, 'to lay down'). German erlegen is a cousin. In Middle English the forms overlapped with allege and alloy, which mixed the senses for a while.
同家族的字
- layallay is historically a- + lay: you 'lay down' a feeling until it is quieter
原始詞典資料7 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
allayverb/əˈleɪ/
- 1
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
- 2
To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.
- to allay the severity of affliction or the bitterness of adversity
- […] and is the onlie laſt remedie for all debilities which haue long vexed the body through a hote diſtemper of the Lever, ſuch as a hote Gutte; it allayeth all Inflamations inward & outward.
- 3
obsoleteTo subside, abate, become peaceful.
- And the wynde alayed, and there folowed a greate calme: and he sayde unto them: why are ye fearfull?
- For raging wind blows up incessant showers, And when the rage allays the rain begins.
- 4
archaicTo mix (metals); to mix with a baser metal; to alloy; to deteriorate.
- 5
archaicTo 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 […]
allaynoun/əˈleɪ/
- 1
Alleviation; abatement; check.
- 2
obsoleteAn alloy.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。