How to use overlay in a sentence

38 example sentences · verb, noun

Overlay means to lay, spread, or apply (something) over or across (something else); to overspread. Example: “She will now overlay the crust with fruit.”

Examples of overlay by meaning

verbTo lay, spread, or apply (something) over or across (something else); to overspread.

She will now overlay the crust with fruit.
She will now overlay fruit on top of the crust.
The hillside at this point is composed of shaly rock overlaid with a peaty loam which carries a growth of heather, and its unstable condition has resulted in two landslides in the course of the railway's history.1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80

verbTo lie over (someone, especially a child) in order to smother it; to suffocate.

Prostitutes, thieves, girls who ‘overlaid’ their babies, abortionists who stuck their knitting needles into something vital – did they really need to be here?1993, Pat Barker, The Eye in the Door (The Regeneration Trilogy), Penguin, published 2014, page 371

nounA decal attached to a computer keyboard to relabel the keys.

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

nounA block of program code that is loaded over something previously loaded, so as to replace the functionality.

This concept can be extended further by allowing a primary overlay to call a secondary overlay, and so on.1986, Noel M. Morris, Computer Graphics and CAD Fundamentals: BBC Micro Version

nounA covering over something else.

The first, on January 1, 1883, was attributed to the overlay becoming surcharged with water, due to insufficient drainage, and causing a slip.1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80
In this we see, without the overlay of polemic that infuses her non-fiction, how Dworkin can proceed from basic feminist principles to create an almost seamless, sophistic argument for sexism.1980 August 2, George Whitmore, “Dworkin”, in Gay Community News, page 5

More sentences with overlay

Everyday behavior is an overlay of learned behavior over instinct.From the entry learned
A phraseologist like Sinatra overlays the metre with something like confiding speech.2018, Joe Moran, First You Write a Sentence. From the entry phraseologist
The microstromatolites and the surrounding basalt were overlaid by fungal cells and hyphae.2015 October 22, “A Fungal-Prokaryotic Consortium at the Basalt-Zeolite Interface in Subseafloor Igneous Crust”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry microstromatolites
In both middens, the shell layers were underlaid and overlaid by nonshell cultural deposits.2002, Peter N. Peregrine, Melvin Ember, Encyclopedia of prehistory, Volume 3. From the entry nonshell
Rare marbles, especially overlays, sulphides, clambroths, and other unusual specimens, need gentle washing and drying.1997, Miriam L. Plans, Caring for your antiques & collectibles, page 94. From the entry sulphide
This is overlayed by a smaller table cloth called ‘overcloth’, ‘slip cloth’, or ‘napperons’.1996, Peter Dias, “5. Restaurant Equipment”, in The Steward, Orient Longman, →ISBN, “2. Selection of Restaurant Equipment”, “4. Linen”…. From the entry undercloth
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
First a map of the world appeared in greens and blues on the screen, overlaid with lines of latitude and longitude.2009, Don Pendleton, Interception, page 69. From the entry cyberwizard
Because of its strong Continental overlay, the cuisine is better here than at your typical Grand Bahama hotel.2007, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Bahamas For Dummies, page 196. From the entry ciao
Giménez accompanied by six-beat handclapping, were soon overlaid with DJ Panko’s scratching or Javier Martin’s thumb-popping bass lines.2007 June 30, Jon Pareles, “Far Beyond Flamenco, a Zest for Rhythms (and Politics)”, in New York Times. From the entry handclapping
A second later, funky beats and distorted guitars kicked in, and then quirky hip-hop-style vocals with a country-and-Western lounge-lizard overlay.2002 October 14, The New Yorker,. From the entry lounge lizard
Where consociationalism and federalism overlay one another, moreover, the continuity of the latter depends on the stability of consociationalism.1995, Hudson Meadwell, “8: Quebec Independence and Secession in the Developed West”, in Sukumar Periwal, editor, Notions of Nationalism…. From the entry federalism
“Twin-Vision” books are inkprint with braille overlays that help young children learn that words can be either seen or touched.1987, Rose-Marie Swallow, Kathleen Mary Huebner (eds.), How to Thrive, Not Just Survive, American Foundation for the Blind, page 40. From the entry inkprint
The geology at the site is mainly sandstone and shale overlaid with boulder clay, and is extremely confused.1955 July, “Storm Damage Repairs in Furness and West Cumberland”, in Railway Magazine, page 470. From the entry faulted
Pommel bilobed, overlaid with four acanthus leaves, and provided with small button-shaped eminences at tips of lobes and at apex.1929, Bashford Dean, Catalogue of European Daggers. From the entry pommel
Mother Earth, at their devastating touch, falls into a death-like swoon—her green mantle overlaid by a dust-coloured shroud.1924, Victor Branford, Living Religions: A Plea for the Larger Modernism, page 47. From the entry death-like
Mother Earth, at their devastating touch, falls into a death-like swoon — her green mantle overlaid by a dustcoloured shroud.1923, The Visva-bharati Quarterly - Volume 1, page 158. From the entry dustcoloured
In the mornings hoar-frost lay thick upon the ground, and thin ice formed in currentless shallows and overlay the muskrat runways.1922 November 25, A[rthur] M[urray] Chisholm, “A Thousand a Plate”, in Western Story Magazine, volume XXX, number 4, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry runway
One of us (AD) re-prepared areas of interest by removing the coating, matrix, and plaster overlaying intact bone, using needles, airscribes and a minigrinder.2015 December 19, “Vertebral Pneumaticity in the Ornithomimosaur Archaeornithomimus (Dinosauria: Theropoda) Revealed by Computed…. From the entry minigrinder
Observation of the history of groups merging into supersocieties indicated that such a development normally proceeds through four stages which may considerably overlay.2012, Peter T. Coleman, Psychological Components of Sustainable Peace, page 5. From the entry supersociety
These overlays were then statted using a screen of etched glass to break up the solid black into small rows of black dots.2009, Kevin Tinsley, Digital Prepress for Comic Books, New York, NY: Stickman Graphics, →ISBN, page 96. From the entry stat
Jefferson County has adopted the mapped hazard area as part of its geologic-hazards overlay, and has considered it to be a “no-build” area.2002, D. M. Abbott Jr., D. C. Noe, “The consequences of living with geology: A model field trip for the general public”, in Science at the…. From the entry no-build
Raspberries raw, stewing, jamming, pulping, take over my house during July, overlaying the richer, more irony smell of the blackcurrant – a contralto to a soprano.2012, Jenny Joseph, Led By The Nose: A Garden of Smells. From the entry irony
The early sgraffito decorations follow on from the medieval practice of using overlay and ornamentation on buildings and reflect the way in which stone is worked.2012, Colum P. Hourihane, editor, The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture, volume I (Aachen to Cecco di Pietro), Oxford…. From the entry sgraffito
Framestores avoid the danger of genlocking the studio to an outside source and add a smoothness to switching in or overlaying the wild feed without picture breakup.1977, Broadcast Engineering - Volume 19, page 48. From the entry wild feed
With his presence marked by shots of children’s toys overlaid with ominous music, Z is more of a creeper than a reaper—until a shocking, sudden moment midway through the film.2020 May 7, Katie Rife, “If you’re looking to jump in your seat, make a playdate with Z”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original…. From the entry creeper
Porcelain-on-steel signs really can't be drilled without rusting, although Caltrans apparently does this often and this is a major cause of overlay plates ("greenout") falling or dangling off of signs.2020 July 5, Daniel P. Faigin, “Highway Numbering in California: Signing in California/Signing Standards”, in California Highways…. From the entry greenout
Instead of overlaying secondary images by alluding to an existing literary or oral tradition, structural overcodes overlay the secondary images by using technical vocabulary from a different frame of reference.2006, Jerry Camery-Hoggatt, Speaking of God: Reading and Preaching the Word of God, →ISBN, page 126. From the entry overcode
When Kate lifted the latch and creaked open the door, it was not the buzzing of bluebottles they noticed, but the smell — a toilety smell overlaid with Jeyes Fluid.2000, Patricia O’Reilly, Once Upon a Summer, Dublin: Wolfhound Press, →ISBN, pages 134–135. From the entry toilety
The central portion of it was composed of ancient pre-Sinian deposits which were gradually overlaid by a mantle of Quaternary sands, but crop out on the surface in the elevations.[1969, “Northwest China: The Mongolian-Sinkiang Region”, in The Physical Geography of China, volume II, Frederick A. Praeger, →LCCN…. From the entry Hexi Corridor

Meaning of overlay

verb To lay, spread, or apply (something) over or across (something else); to overspread.
verb To overwhelm; to press excessively upon.
verb To lie over (someone, especially a child) in order to smother it; to suffocate.

Full definition of overlay

Questions about overlay in a sentence

How do you use overlay in a sentence?: Overlay is used as a verb and noun. For example: “She will now overlay the crust with fruit.”
What is a short sentence with overlay?: “She will now overlay the crust with fruit.”
What does overlay mean?: Overlay means to lay, spread, or apply (something) over or across (something else); to overspread.

Adapted from Wiktionary: overlay (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use overlay in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/overlay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.