overlay

present singular third person overlays · participle present overlaying · participle past overlaid · past overlaid · participle past overlayed · past overlayed

1. transitiveTo lay, spread, or apply (something) over or across (something else); to overspread.

   She will now overlay the crust with fruit.

   5 more examples

   Near-synonyms: cover, superimpose, superpose

   She will now overlay fruit on top of the crust.

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

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 34, page 99

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

   1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1140–1141

   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.

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

   Synonyms: cover, superimpose, superpose

2. To overwhelm; to press excessively upon.

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

   c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War

3. archaictransitiveTo lie over (someone, especially a child) in order to smother it; to suffocate.First known use 14th c.

   a heap of ashes that o'erlays your fire

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

   2 more examples

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

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 3:19

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

   1993, Pat Barker, The Eye in the Door (The Regeneration Trilogy), Penguin, published 2014, page 371

4. transitivemediaTo put an overlay on.
5. transitivegamblingTo bet too much money on.

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

   1890, The Twentieth Century, volume 27, page 934

plural overlays

1. graphic artsartsAn image to be overlaid on another; a superimposition or diapositive.
2. mediaA piece of paper pasted upon the tympan sheet to improve the impression by making it stronger at a particular place.
3. gamblingOdds which are set higher than expected or warranted. Favorable odds.
4. hobbiesA horse going off at higher odds than it appears to warrant, based on its past performances.
5. A decal attached to a computer keyboard to relabel the keys.

   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.

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

   Synonyms: keystrip

6. computingA block of program code that is loaded over something previously loaded, so as to replace the functionality.

   1 more example

   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.

   1986, Noel M. Morris, Computer Graphics and CAD Fundamentals: BBC Micro Version

7. InternetA pop-up covering an existing part of the display.
8. ScotlandA cravat.
9. A covering over something else.

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

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

   2 more examples

   I really appreciate the clear explication of Dworkin's understanding of male sexuality. In this we see, without the overlay of polemic that infuses her non-fiction, how Dworkin can proceed from basic feminist principles to create an almost seamless, sophistic argument for sexism.

   1980 August 2, George Whitmore, “Dworkin”, in Gay Community News, page 5

   ECDP [East Coast Digital Programme] started with the Northern City Line, where trains are already being signalled over four miles with ETCS as an overlay on conventional signalling. This means that the colour light signals remain in place and are operational, but any Class 717 that runs onto the route with a driver trained in ETCS must run in that mode. Drivers yet to be trained work as usual. […] With ETCS installed as an overlay, drivers can use trackside or cab signalling according to their competence.

   2024 May 29, Philip Haigh, “The digital revolution and the switch to in-cab signalling”, in RAIL, number 1010, pages 29, 31

1. pastsimple past of overlie