Obs.; also 4–5 alegge, allege, 4–6 allegge, 5 alledge, 6 alege. [a. OFr. alege-r, alegier (14th c. alléger):—L. alleviā-re to lighten, f. al- = ad- to + levis light. Cf. Pr. aleujar, It. alleggiare, and L. abbreviare, Fr. abréger: see ABRIDGE.]
1. To lighten (one) of any burden.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 3894. Pardon … sal þam avail, To allege þair saules of payne.
c. 1450. Lydg., Mass Bk. (1879), 394. Ffor to alleggen the wery lemys of her grete berthene.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 266/3. He felte hym a lytell alledged and eased of his payne.
2. To lighten, alleviate, diminish (a burden, grief, pain); or to abridge the duration of a trouble.
1382. Wyclif, Is. ix. 1. The first tyme is aleggid, or maad liȝt, the lond of Zabulon.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. VII. 195. I pray ȝow now þat ȝe allegge [allevictis] my tourmentes.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 2588. I wolde this thought wolde come ageyne, For it alleggith welle my peyne.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., I. v. 18. They setted not of mete and drynke, but for talegge their hungre and thurste.
1530. Palsgr., 420/2. I alege, I lyghten or comforte. Je alege; I allevyale, I make lyght the mynde or body. Je allege.
¶ In this sense now represented by ALLAY v.1 The infinitive and certain other parts of these two vbs. were formally identical in ME., and when aleggen,:—OE. alecʓan, was levelled to aleye, allay (as explained under that vb.), this was also substituted for aleggen = OFr. alegier, giving the modern ‘to allay hunger, pain, grief, fear’: see ALLAY v.1 II. Spenser has alegge as an archaism for allay:
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., March. The joyous time now nigheth fast, That shall alegge this bitter blast.
