Past tense of overlie
irregular verb
The past tense of overlie is overlay. The past participle is overlain.
Forms of overlie
| Base form (V1) | overlie /ˌoʊvɚˈlaɪ/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | overlay /ˌəʊ.vəˈleɪ/ |
| Past participle (V3) | overlain /oʊ.vɚ.leɪn/ |
| Present participle | overlying |
| Third person singular | overlies |
Overlay and overlain in a sentence
- Everyday behavior is an overlay of learned behavior over instinct.From the entry learned
- She will now overlay the crust with fruit.From the entry overlay
- She will now overlay fruit on top of the crust.From the entry overlay
- The keyboard overlay can be a memory jogger and a great help with spelling.1994, Roger Frost, The IT in Secondary Science Book, page 56. From the entry overlay
- Overlay the front side seam on top of the back side seam and pin them together all the way down.2011 June 8, Dana, “Retro Racer Shorts”, in Made Everyday. From the entry racer stripe
Meaning of overlie
- verb To lie over or upon.
- verb To suffocate by lying upon.
Verbs like overlie
- lie (lay)
Questions about the past tense of overlie
- What is the past tense of overlie?
- The past tense of overlie is overlay.
- What is the past participle of overlie?
- The past participle of overlie is overlain.
- Is overlie a regular or irregular verb?
- Overlie is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overlie (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of overlie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/overlie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.