o'erlay

o'erlay is the alternative form of overlay.

Meaning of overlay

overlay (third-person singular simple present overlays, present participle overlaying, simple past and past participle overlaid or overlayed)

(transitive) To lay, spread, or apply (something) over or across (something else); to overspread.
- Near-synonyms: cover, superimpose, superpose
Synonyms:

cover, superimpose, superpose
To overwhelm; to press excessively upon.
- when any country is overlaid by the multitude which live upon itc. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War
(archaic, transitive) To lie over (someone, especially a child) in order to smother it; to suffocate.
- 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
(transitive) To put an overlay on.
(transitive) To 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

o'erlay (plural o'erlays)

Verb
third-person singular present	o'erlays
present participle	o'erlaying
past participle	o'erlaid
past	o'erlaid
Noun
plural	o'erlays

What does o'erlay mean?: O'erlay means a large cravat.
What is o'erlay the alternative form of?: O'erlay is the alternative form of overlay.
What part of speech is o'erlay?: O'erlay is a noun.
What is the plural of o'erlay?: The plural of o'erlay is o'erlays.

Adapted from Wiktionary: o'erlay (page history and authors); overlay (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “o'erlay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/o%27erlay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.