Allay vs Extenuate - What's the difference?

In transitive terms the difference between allay and extenuate

is that allay is to alleviate; to abate; to mitigate while extenuate is to lessen; to palliate; to lessen or weaken the force of; to diminish the conception of, as crime, guilt, faults, ills, accusations, etc.; opposed to aggravate.

As a noun allay

is alleviation; abatement; check.

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

* ----

extenuate

English

Verb

(en-verb)

To make thin or slender; to draw out so as to lessen the thickness.

* Grew

His body behind the head becomes broad, from whence it is again extenuated all the way to the tail.

* Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

To this extenuated spectre, perhaps, a crumb is not thrown once a year, but when ahungered and athirst to famine—when all humanity has forgotten the dying tenant of a decaying house—Divine Mercy remembers the mourner

To become thinner.

To lessen; to palliate; to lessen or weaken the force of; to diminish the conception of, as crime, guilt, faults, ills, accusations, etc.; opposed to aggravate.

* 1599 ,

CLAUDIO. I know what you would say: if I have known her,

You'll say she did embrace me as a husband,

And so extenuate the 'forehand sin: No, Leonato,

I never tempted her with word too large;

But, as a brother to his sister, show'd

Bashful sincerity and comely love.

* I. Taylor

Let us extenuate , conceal, adorn the unpleasing reality.

(obsolete) To lower or degrade; to detract from.

* Milton

Who can extenuate thee?