OVERLAY • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Overlay

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/ˈoʊvərlˌeɪ/ Listen

noun

Overlay n.

1.

A covering.

2.

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

3.

(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.

verb

Overlay v. t. (past & past part. overlaid; pres. part. overlaying)

1.

To lay, or spread, something over or across; hence, to cover; to overwhelm; to press excessively upon. "When any country is overlaid by the multitude which live upon it." "As when a cloud his beams doth overlay." "Framed of cedar overlaid with gold." "And overlay With this portentous bridge the dark abyss."

2.

Specifically: 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.

3.

To smother with a close covering, or by lying upon. "This woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it." "A heap of ashes that o'erlays your fire."

4.

(Printing) To put an overlay on.

Overlie v. t. (past overlay; past part. overlain; pres. part. overlying) To lie over or upon; specifically, to suffocate by lying upon; as, to overlie an infant. "A woman by negligence overlieth her child in her sleeping."

See images of 'Overlay'

Etymology of 'Overlay'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Overlay" Quotes from Famous Books

... stop. Henery Walker got into trouble for leaning over Charlie Stubbs's fence and feeding his chickens for 'im, and Sam Jones's wife had to run off 'ome to 'er mother 'arf-dressed because she had 'appened to overlay a sick rabbit wot Sam 'ad taken to bed ...

— Ship's Company, The Entire Collection • W.W. Jacobs

... wrapping, wrapper; envelope, vesicle; corn husk, corn shuck [U.S.]; dermatology, conchology; testaceology[obs3]. inunction[obs3]; incrustation, superimposition, superposition, obduction|; scale &c. (layer) 204. [specific coverings: list] veneer, facing; overlay; plate, silver plate, gold plate, copper plate; engobe[obs3]; ormolu; Sheffield plate; pavement; coating, paint; varnish &c. (resin) 356a; plating, barrel plating, anointing &c. v.; enamel; epitaxial deposition[Engin], vapor deposition; ...

— Roget's Thesaurus

... me, for she was clearly bent on seeking out Leavitt at once. A strange calmness overlay her. She paid no heed to Lakalatcha's gigantic, smoke-belching cone, but, with fingers gripping the rail, scanned the forbidding and inscrutable forest, behind which lay the answer ...

— The Best Short Stories of 1920 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... involucrum[Lat]; wrapping, wrapper; envelope, vesicle; corn husk, corn shuck [U.S.]; dermatology, conchology; testaceology[obs3]. inunction[obs3]; incrustation, superimposition, superposition, obduction|; scale &c. (layer) 204. [specific coverings: list] veneer, facing; overlay; plate, silver plate, gold plate, copper plate; engobe[obs3]; ormolu; Sheffield plate; pavement; coating, paint; varnish &c. (resin) 356a; plating, barrel plating, anointing &c. v.; enamel; epitaxial deposition[Engin], vapor deposition; ...

— Roget's Thesaurus

... setim wood, which shall be five cubits long, and as many broad . . . and three cubits high . . . and thou shalt cover it with brass": and (Ex. 30:1, 3): "Thou shalt make . . . an altar to burn incense, of setim wood . . . and thou shalt overlay ...

— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas

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