overlaying
overlaying is the present participle and gerund of overlay.
Meaning of overlay
Verb
overlay (third-person singular simple present overlays, present participle overlaying, simple past and past participle overlaid or overlayed)
- 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
- 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
- To put an overlay on.
- 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
Noun
overlaying (countable and uncountable, plural overlayings)
Forms of overlaying
| plural | overlayings |
|---|
Questions about overlaying
- What does overlaying mean?
- Overlaying means overlaid ornamentation.
- What is overlaying the present participle and gerund of?
- Overlaying is the present participle and gerund of overlay.
- What part of speech is overlaying?
- Overlaying is a noun.
- What is the plural of overlaying?
- The plural of overlaying is overlayings.
Words near overlaying in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overlaying (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:
Cite this entry: “overlaying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overlaying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.