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Allay vs Compose - What's the difference?

allay | compose | Synonyms |

Allay is a synonym of compose.


As verbs the difference between allay and compose

is that allay is to make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm while compose is .

As nouns the difference between allay and compose

is that allay is alleviation; abatement; check while compose is compound.

allay

English

Alternative forms

* (obsolete)

Verb

(en verb)
  • 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
  • To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.
    • to allay the severity of affliction or the bitterness of adversity
  • (obsolete) To subside, abate, become peaceful.
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Mark IV:
    • And the wynde alayed , and there folowed a greate calme: and he sayde unto them: why are ye fearfull?
  • * Shakespeare
    • When the rage allays .
  • (archaic) To mix (metals); to mix with a baser metal; to alloy; to deteriorate.
    • (Fuller)

    Quotations

    He had to pretend to be drunk in order to allay the suspicions which might have been aroused by his appearance at the gate.
    —Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in A Study in Scarlet

    Synonyms

    * alleviate; check; repress; assuage; appease; abate; subdue; destroy; compose; soothe; calm; quiet

    Noun

  • alleviation; abatement; check

    • References

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    compose

    English

    (Composition)

    Verb

    (compos)
  • To make something by merging parts.
    • The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters.
    Try to compose your thoughts.
  • * Bishop Sprat
    • Zeal ought to be composed of the highest degrees of all pious affection.
  • To make up the whole; to constitute.
    • A church is composed of its members.
  • * I. Watts
    • A few useful things compose their intellectual possessions.
  • (nonstandard) To comprise.
  • (transitive, or, intransitive) To construct by mental labor; to think up; particularly, to produce or create a literary or musical work.
    • The orator composed his speech over the week prior.
    Nine numbered symphonies, including the Fifth, were composed by Beethoven.
    It's difficult to compose without absolute silence.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Let me compose / Something in verse as well as prose.
  • * B. R. Haydon
    • the genius that composed such works as the "Standard" and "Last Supper"
  • (sometimes, reflexive) To calm; to free from agitation.
    • The defendant couldn't compose herself and was found in contempt.
  • * Dryden
    • Compose thy mind; / Nor frauds are here contrived, nor force designed.
  • To arrange the elements of a photograph or other picture.
  • To settle (an argument, dispute etc.); to come to a settlement.
  • * 2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), Hitch-22 , Atlantic 2011, p. 280:
    • By trying his best to compose matters with the mullahs, he had sincerely shown that he did not seek a violent collision
  • To arrange in proper form; to reduce to order; to put in proper state or condition.
  • * Dryden
    • In a peaceful grave my corpse compose .
  • * Milton
    • How in safety best we may / Compose our present evils.
  • (printing, dated) To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset.

    • Derived terms

    * composer * composite * composing stick * composition * compositor * composure * decompose

    Related terms

    * compound