Word.ws English Dictionary

underlay

/ʌndəɹˈleɪ/

underlay is the simple past of underlie.

Verb

underlay (third-person singular simple present underlays, present participle underlaying, simple past and past participle underlaid)

  1. (transitive) To lay (something) underneath something else; to put under.
    • We underlaid the carpet with felt.
  2. (transitive) To provide a support for something; to raise or support by something laid under.
    • to underlay a cut, plate, or the like, for printing
  3. (transitive) To put a tap on (a shoe).
  4. (ambitransitive, fault) To incline from the vertical.
    Synonyms:
    hade

Noun

IPA/ˈʌndəɹˌleɪ/

underlay (countable and uncountable, plural underlays)

  1. A layer (of earth, etc.) that lies under another; substratum.
  2. A soft floor covering that lies under a carpet.
  3. Anything that is underlaid.
  4. (historical) A piece of paper pasted under woodcuts, stereotype plates, etc. in a form, to bring them up to the necessary level for printing.
  5. Lyrics; or more specifically, the way in which lyrics are assigned to musical notes.
    • The underlay in bar 3 is unclear in Handel's manuscript.

Meaning of underlie

Verb

underlie (third-person singular simple present underlies, present participle underlying, simple past underlay, past participle underlain)

  1. (intransitive) To lie in a position directly beneath something.
  2. (transitive) To lie under or beneath.
    • A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.
  3. (transitive) To serve as a basis of; form the foundation of.
    • a doctrine underlying a theory
    Synonyms:
    underpin
  4. (transitive) To be subject to; be liable to answer, as a charge or challenge.
    • The knight of Ivanhoe […] underlies the challenge of Brian der Bois Guilbert.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co....
  5. To underlay.

Synonyms of underlay

Forms of underlay

Verb
third-person singular presentunderlays
present participleunderlaying
past participleunderlaid
pastunderlaid
Noun
pluralunderlays

Origin of underlay

From Middle English underleyen, from Old English underleċġan (“to underlay, prop, support”), equivalent to under- + lay. Cognate with Dutch onderleggen (“to lay or put under”), German unterlegen (“to underlay”), Swedish underlägga (“to underlay”).

From Middle English underlay, underlei, equivalent to under- + lay.

Words formed from underlay

Words that rhyme with underlay

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about underlay

What does underlay mean?
Underlay means to lay (something) underneath something else; to put under.
What is underlay the simple past of?
Underlay is the simple past of underlie.
What part of speech is underlay?
Underlay can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce underlay?
Underlay is pronounced /ʌndəɹˈleɪ/.
What is the past tense of underlay?
The past tense of underlay is underlaid.

Words near underlay in the dictionary

  1. underlaughter
  2. underlaundress
  3. underlaundresses
  4. underlawyer
  5. underlawyers
  6. underlay
  7. underlayed
  8. underlayer
  9. underlayered
  10. underlayering
  11. underlayers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underlay (page history and authors); underlie (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-underlay.wav.

Cite this entry: “underlay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/underlay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.