Meaning

9 senses

  1. An image to be overlaid on another; a superimposition or diapositive.

  2. A piece of paper pasted upon the tympan sheet to improve the impression by making it stronger at a particular place.

  3. Odds which are set higher than expected or warranted. Favorable odds.

  4. A 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.

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

  7. (Internet)A pop-up covering an existing part of the display.

  8. (Scotland)A cravat.

  9. A covering over something else.

More definitions
  • a layer of decorative material (such as gold leaf or wood veneer) applied over a surface
  • protective covering consisting, for example, of a layer of boards applied to the studs and joists of a building to strengthen it and serve as a foundation for a weatherproof exterior

Examples

3 sentences

  1. His belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.

    carlosalberto · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. He overlaid the walls on the inside with gold.

    carlosalberto · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. What was vital was overlaid and hidden by what was irrelevant.

    Hybrid · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Origin

From Middle English overleyen, from Old English oferleċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *obar

From Middle English overleyen, from Old English oferleċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *obarlaggjan, from Proto-Germanic *uberlagjaną, equivalent to over- + lay. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uurläze, úurlääse, Dutch overleggen, German Low German overleggen, överleggen, German überlegen, Swedish överlägga, Norwegian overlegge. Compare overlie.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: overlays
Singularoverlay
Pluraloverlays

regular

Synonyms

3 synonyms
keystrip
Close in meaning
  • protective covering consisting, for example, of a layer of boards applied to the studs and joists of a building to strengthen it and serve as a foundation for a weatherproof exterior:sheathingoverlayer

Word family

3 related words
Relatedveneer
Derivedcurrency overlayoverlay scrollbar

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
overkilloverlapB2overloadoverlookB2

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

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