Relieves fear, etc., with a witty sally (6)
I believe the answer is:
allays
'relieves' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with human feelings as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'fear etc with a witty sally' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'sally' is 'llays' which is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for allays that I've seen before include "Soothes, eases" , "Diminishes or puts at rest" , "Assuages, eases" , "Puts at rest, say fears" , "Calms" .)