Definition of "overlay"

overlay¹

/ˌəʊ.vəˈleɪ/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  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, stanza 34, page 99
  By his preſcript a Sanctuary is fram'dOf Cedar, overlaid with Gold,
  1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, 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
2. To overwhelm; to press excessively upon.
  Quotations
  when any country is overlaid by the multitude which live upon it
  c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War
3. (transitive, now rare, archaic) To lie over (someone, especially a child) in order to smother it; to suffocate.
  Quotations
  And this womans childe died in the night: because she ouerlaid it.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1 Kings 3:19
  a heap of ashes that o'erlays your fire
  1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy
  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. (transitive, printing) To put an overlay on.
5. (transitive, gambling) To bet too much money on.
  Quotations
  […] 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
noun
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.
  Quotations
  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
5. (programming) A block of program code that is loaded over something previously loaded, so as to replace the functionality.
  Quotations
  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
6. (Internet) A pop-up covering an existing part of the display.
7. (Scotland) A cravat.
8. A covering over something else.
  Quotations
  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

overlay²

verb
1. simple past of overlie

Definition of "overlay"

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overlay2

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overlay¹

overlay²