overlie
Americanverb (used with object)
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to lie over or upon, as a covering or stratum.
-
to smother (an infant) by lying on them, as in sleep.
verb
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to lie or rest upon Compare overlay
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to kill (a baby or newborn animal) by lying upon it
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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overliesimple
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overliessimple
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have overlainperfect
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has overlainperfect
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am overlyingprogressive
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are overlyingprogressive
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is overlyingprogressive
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have been overlyingperfect progressive
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has been overlyingperfect progressive
Past
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overlaysimple
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had overlainperfect
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was overlyingprogressive
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were overlyingprogressive
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had been overlyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overlie
First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English overlien, overliggen; see over-, lie 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Indeed, with the discovery that both cartouches of Ay overlie original cartouches of Tutankhamun, we have the veritable smoking gun,” he said.
From New York Times ● Oct. 30, 2022
The researchers combined reams of geologic data from 2003 to 2017 to determine where U.S. forests and shrublands overlie bedrock that roots could feasibly reach.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 29, 2021
However, near the bottom horizontal strata overlie tilted strata.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
Schmidt calculates that these tumbled patches of ice probably overlie pockets of liquid water trapped in the shifting ice.
From Slate ● Dec. 19, 2014
High clouds temporarily overlie about a third of the GRS.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
A deep fracture in the Tibetan Plateau known as the Cona-Sangri rift overlies the tear—a tantalizing hint that the tumult in the Indian Plate’s underbelly might somehow ripple to the surface.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 9, 2024
The freeways are the concrete net that overlies it all, but only real Angelenos enter their mesmerizing alpha state.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2023
So they wet the skin that overlies this big balloon of blood right behind their nostrils.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2023
When a strong jet streak overlies a developing low-pressure system, it creates a feedback pattern that makes warm air rise at an increasing rate.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 28, 2022
The Ongeluk volcanic series, consisting of lavas and breccias, conformably overlies the Griquatown series; while the grits, quartzites and conglomerates of the Matsap series rest on them with a great discordance.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 2 "Camorra" to "Cape Colony" by Various
But a digital forensics expert told AFP's fact-checkers that the anomaly was the result of a failed text overlay by a news station that had syndicated the official feed.
From Barron's ● Apr. 11, 2026
UBP cuts duration across all currencies, scales back its sterling duration overlay and reduces exposure to emerging-market local currency bonds, it says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
"I noticed that the brick was a very pink-cast brick, and it had a little bit of a charcoal overlay on it. It was a modular eight-inch brick and it was square-edged," he says.
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026
“I m not sure why he was sanctimonious and agressive when detailing the harvey weinstein allegations,” Epstein wrote. “now watching the overlay , its amazing.”
From Salon ● Feb. 6, 2026
He tried to forget those horrible images, overlay them with other ones.
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
In many Baltic cemeteries horses were buried separately from humans, but there are numerous examples of horses with overlain human cremations.
From Science Daily ● May 17, 2024
It’s his own method to bring discipline to interviews that can be brief, chaotic and overlain by sirens and ambient sounds of human distress.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
Tornadoes are born of severe thunderstorms when warm humid surface air is overlain by cooler, drier air aloft, producing what meteorologists call a “conditionally unstable atmosphere.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 21, 2021
On Thursday, Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala walked in wearing a wild, light-colored suit with an overlain windowpane, plaid pattern.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 1, 2020
A soft carpet, overlain with brown linen, is spread from the curbstone into the hall.
From An Outcast or, Virtue and Faith by Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
National Fuel Gas owns roughly 1.2 million acres in the Appalachian Basin, with substantial mineral ownership overlying the Marcellus and Utica shales.
From Barron's ● Jan. 23, 2026
This month, the researchers will return to Waesche, looking for more rocks that could confirm whether the loss of overlying ice caused Waesche to wake up.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 2, 2024
A wide residential and commercial block, known as "Region 9", is being cleared of several metres of overlying pumice and ash thrown out by Vesuvius almost 2,000 years ago.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2024
Cadiz owned 35,000 acres overlying a desert aquifer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2024
I nodded, my fingers finding the bare skin of his forearms, tracing the muscles and overlying veins there.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
