overlay

overlay

English

Etymology 1

over- +‎ lay. Compare overlie.

Pronunciation

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ō'və-lāʹ, IPA^(key): /ˌəʊ.vəˈleɪ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: ō'vər-lāʹ, IPA^(key): /ˌoʊvɚˈleɪ/

Noun

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ōʹvə-lā', IPA^(key): /ˈəʊ.vəˌleɪ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: ōʹvər-lā', IPA^(key): /ˈoʊvɚˌleɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Verb

overlay (third-person singular simple present overlays, present participle overlaying, simple past and past participle overlaid or overlayed)

1. (transitive) To lay, spread, or apply something over or across; cover.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 34, page 99:

     For ſo exceeding ſhone his gliſtring ray,
     That Phœbus golden face it did attaint,
     As when a cloud his beames doth ouer-lay

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 1140–1141:

     By his preſcript a Sanctuary is fram'd
     Of Cedar, overlaid with Gold,

   • 1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80:

     The hillside at this point is composed of shaly rock overlaid with a peaty loam which carries a growth of heather, and its unstable condition has resulted in two landslides in the course of the railway's history.

2. To overwhelm; to press excessively upon.
   • c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War:

     when any country is overlaid by the multitude which live upon it

3. (transitive, now rare, archaic) To lie over (someone, especially a child) in order to smother it; to suffocate. [from 14th c.]
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 1 Kings 3:19:

     And this womans childe died in the night: because she ouerlaid it.

   • 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy

     a heap of ashes that o'erlays your fire

   • 1993, Pat Barker, The Eye in the Door, Penguin 2014 (The Regeneration Trilogy), p. 371:

     Prostitutes, thieves, girls who ‘overlaid’ their babies, abortionists who stuck their knitting needles into something vital – did they really need to be here?

4. (transitive, printing) To put an overlay on.
5. (transitive, gambling) To bet too much money on.
   • 1890, The Twentieth Century (volume 27, page 934)

     […] he has 'overlaid' his book, and has not succeeded in 'getting round' by bets against the other horses.

Translations

to lay, or spread, something over or across; to cover

Bulgarian: покривам (bg) (pokrivam) Finnish: päällystää (fi) Japanese: 乗せる (ja) (のせる, noseru), 被せる (ja) (かぶせる, kabuseru), 覆う (ja) (おおう, ōu) Maori: paparua, whakakikorua Portuguese: revestir (pt), aplicar (pt)

overwhelm — see overwhelm

to smother with a close covering, or by lying upon

Finnish: tukahduttaa (fi) Japanese: 乗せる (ja) (のせる, noseru), 被せる (ja) (かぶせる, kabuseru), 覆う (ja) (おおう, ōu)

to put an overlay on

Finnish: peittää (fi) Maori: whakakikorua

Noun

overlay (plural overlays)

1. (printing) A piece of paper pasted upon the tympan sheet to improve the impression by making it stronger at a particular place.
2. (gambling) Odds which are set higher than expected or warranted. Favorable odds.
3. (horse racing) A horse going off at higher odds than it appears to warrant, based on its past performances.
4. A decal attached to a computer keyboard to relabel the keys.

   Synonym: keystrip

   • 1994, Roger Frost, The IT in Secondary Science Book, page 56:

     The keyboard overlay can be a memory jogger and a great help with spelling. In this way the keyboard makes word processing more accessible to younger as well as special needs children.

5. (programming) A block of program code that is loaded over something previously loaded, so as to replace the functionality.
   • 1986, Noel M. Morris, Computer Graphics and CAD Fundamentals: BBC Micro Version:

     This concept can be extended further by allowing a primary overlay to call a secondary overlay, and so on. However, we will limit ourselves here to the use of primary overlays. Before proceeding further, you need to understand the memory map of the computer, which is a diagram showing the use to which the memory of the computer is put.

6. (Internet) A pop-up covering an existing part of the display.
7. (Scotland) A cravat.
8. A covering over something else.
   • 1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80:

     The first, on January 1, 1883, was attributed to the overlay becoming surcharged with water, due to insufficient drainage, and causing a slip.

Translations

printing: piece of paper

Finnish: peitepaperi

betting: odds which are higher than expected

horse racing

Verb

overlay

1. simple past tense of overlie

References

• “overlay”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• lay over, layover