Link Centre Dictionary

overlie

over·lie

UK/ˌoʊvɚˈlaɪ/ uncommon

verb

1.

lie upon; lie on top of

  • “the granite overlies the older rocks”
2.

kill by lying on

  • “The sow overlay her piglets”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English overlien, overliggen, equivalent to over- + lie (“to be reclined”). Compare West Frisian oerlizze, German überliegen, Danish overligge, Swedish överligga, Norwegian overligge.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.