Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To lay upon or over; cover or spread over the surface of: as, cedar overlaid with gold.
  • To burden or encumber; oppress.
  • To lie upon; hence, to smother by lying upon: for overlie.
  • To obscure by covering; cloud; overcast.
  • To span; join the opposite sides of.
  • In printing, to make even or graduate the impression of, on a printing-press, by means of overlays.
  • In printing, to use overlays.
  • noun In quarrying, the overburden or detrital material which covers the rock in a quarry.
  • noun In printing, a bit of paper accurately cut and pasted on the impression-surface of a printing-press with intent to increase the impression in a place where it is not strong enough.
  • noun In tile-ornamenting (by the process of pressing leaves, laces, or embossed patterns upon the unbaked tiles), a part of a leaf, cutting of lace, etc., which lies over and upon another leaf, cutting, or pattern.
  • noun A second tablecloth laid in various ways over a larger cloth on the table.
  • noun A cravat; a neckcloth.
  • noun Loosely, anything laid over another for protection or ornament.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To lay, or spread, something over or across; hence, to cover; to overwhelm; to press excessively upon.
  • transitive verb To cover (an object made of an inexpensive metal, glass, or other material) with a thin sheet of an expensive metal, especially with silver or gold. Distinguished from to plate, which is done by a chemical or electrical deposition process.
  • transitive verb To smother with a close covering, or by lying upon.
  • transitive verb (Printing) To put an overlay on.
  • noun A covering.
  • noun (Printing) A piece of paper pasted upon the tympan sheet to improve the impression by making it stronger at a particular place.
  • noun (Computers) A subroutine which occupies a portion of main memory which is occupied at some other time by another subroutine during execution of the same program. Overlays were used as an older technique to allow larger programs to be executed in restricted main memory space; the same effect is now accomplished by different techniques.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To lay, or spread, something over or across; to cover.
  • verb To overwhelm; to press excessively upon.
  • verb transitive To smother with a close covering, or by lying upon.
  • verb transitive, printing To put an overlay on.
  • noun printing A piece of paper pasted upon the tympan sheet to improve the impression by making it stronger at a particular place.
  • noun gambling Odds which are set higher than expected or warranted. Favorable odds.
  • noun horse racing A horse going off at higher odds than it appears to warrant, based on its past performances.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb put something on top of something else
  • noun 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
  • noun a layer of decorative material (such as gold leaf or wood veneer) applied over a surface
  • verb kill by lying on

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

over- +‎ lay (compare overlie)

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Examples

Comments

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  • Pig-latin for lover.

    November 21, 2008

  • Would you feel like creating a list of Pig-Latin words that are also English words?

    November 21, 2008

  • No. I just generated about 5 of them on a quick Onelook.com ?????ay search. I am facinated by the eBay one, however, because it seems kind of sneaky.

    November 21, 2008

  • As Erich Fromm -- were he alive -- would say,

    otay avehay oryay otay ebay.

    November 21, 2008

  • Not making a list? Why the underplay?

    November 21, 2008