overlay
Pronunciation
Verb
  • (RP) enPR: ō'və-lāʹ, IPA: /ˌəʊ.vəˈleɪ/
  • (America) enPR: ō'vər-lāʹ, IPA: /ˌoʊvɚˈleɪ/
Noun
  • (RP) enPR: ōʹvə-lā', IPA: /ˈəʊ.vəˌleɪ/
  • (America) enPR: ōʹvər-lā', IPA: /ˈoʊvɚˌleɪ/
Verb

overlay (overlays, present participle overlaying; past and past participle overlaid)

  1. (transitive) To lay, spread, or apply something over or across; cover.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938 ↗, book I, canto VII, 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. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗, lines 1140–1141:
      By his preſcript a Sanctuary is fram'd
      Of Cedar, overlaid with Gold,
  2. To overwhelm; to press excessively upon.
    • 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), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, 1 Kings 3:19 ↗:
      And this womans childe died in the night: because she ouerlaid it.
    • 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#Noun|overlay on.
Translations 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. (betting) 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.
  5. (programming) A block of program code that is loaded over something previously loaded, so as to replace the functionality.
  6. (internet) A pop-up covering an existing part of the display.
  7. (Scotland) A cravat.
Verb
  1. simple past tense of overlie



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