▪ I. ˈunderlay, n.
[under-1 4 d.]
† 1. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.) 211 Ye haue another sort of repetition... The Greeks call him Epizeuxis, the Latines Subiunctio, we may call him the vnderlay. |
2. a. A piece added to the sole of a shoe.
| 1612 Pasquil's Night-cap (1877) 25 She could line her shoes with vnder-laies, So cunningly, that few the fault did spie. |
b. = eke n.1 2 b.
| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 63 They will or within a monethes space worke downe to the bottome of the hive, and then must yow give them an underlay. There is in an underlay usually five wreathes, viz., one for the hive to stand within, and fower belowe; yow are to putte in an underlay two spelles. |
c. A piece inserted as a prop or support, esp. so as to make one part level with another.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing ii. ¶1 Presses [should] have..an even Horizontal Floor to stand on, That when the Presses are set up their Feet shall need no Underlays. Ibid. xxiv. ¶1 The aforesaid Battens will also keep these Underlays from working out. |
d. Printing. A piece of paper or cardboard placed under type, cuts, or plates, to raise these to the required level.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxiv. 291 He tries thicker or thinner Vnder-lays till he have evened the Vnder⁓lay with the Face of the Letter. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 118/2 Underlays, are small slips of Scabbord put under letters. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. xv. 521 They will be found to sink a little from the repeated impressions, consequently the cuts will require an additional underlay. 1880 Scribner's Mag. May 43/1 He puts a proper underlay under every cut..that contains much black surface, and fairly braces it to resist hard impression. |
e. gen. A layer which underlies another; a substratum. Also as fig. use of next sense.
| 1876 W. Whitman Jrnl. 10 June in Specimen Days (1883) 87, I write..here by the creek... For underlay, trees in fulness of tender foliage—liquid reedy, long-drawn notes of birds. 1964 Listener 15 Oct. 572/1 The main characteristic of the new popular manner is an aggressive surface over a soft underlay; it is noisy..about minor issues, but takes good care not to tread any..controversial ground. 1977 C. McCullough Thorn Birds (1978) ii. vii. 174 ‘I do not intend to make a long eulogy,’ he said in his clear, almost Oxford diction with its faint Irish underlay. |
f. spec. (sheets of) material laid beneath a carpet (usu. felt or paper, or as an integral rubberized backing) or a mattress, for protection and support.
| 1907 Army & Navy Stores Catal. 275/2 Moth proof Cotton underlay to go between wire bottom of bed and mattress..4/8. 1923 Daily Mail 21 Feb. 8 (Advt.), Cedar Felt is an improved paper felt underlay for carpets. 1929 W. Deeping Roper's Row xxi. 233 They'll do for underlays on the beds. I shan't waste them. 1959 Spectator 7 Aug. 165/2 Underlay adds to the life of a carpet, absorbs pressure from furniture and footsteps and acts as a sound absorber and insulator. 1980 D. Adams Restaurant at End of Universe xx. 117 The thin tufted nylon floor covering was black, and when they had lifted up a corner of it they had discovered that the foam underlay also was black. |
3. Mining. = dip n. 5, hade n.2 (See quots. 1831–55, and cf. underlie n.)
| 1831–3 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 203/1 The underlay of a lode is a term used to denote the direction of its inclination with regard to the horizon. 1855 [J. R. Leifchild] Cornwall 101 The dip of a lode..being its inclination from a perpendicular line, or its underlay. 1880 C. C. Adley Rep. to Pioneer Mining Co., Lim. 2 Oct. 1 A small shaft will also be sunk,..following the underlay of the lode. |
| attrib. 1850 Weale Dict. Terms, Underlay shaft, a shaft sunk on the course of a lode. 1882 U.S. Rep. Prec. Met. 461 The mine is entered by an underlay or inclined shaft 150 feet deep. |
4. Early Mus. The placing of text in relation to music. Cf. sense 1 e of the vb.
| 1969 G. Reaney in Reese & Snow Essays in Musicology in Honor of Dragan Plamenac xvi. 250 The most difficult type of underlay consists of a moderately large group of notes with rather fewer syllables. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 June 642/2 When Petrarch's lines are restored to their proper shape and order and deployed in reasonable fashion below the notes of the vocal part, most if not all of the problems of underlay disappear. 1980 Early Music Jan. 21/1 Directions for tempo and dynamics, and frequently for underlay also, are absent from manuscript and printed sources alike. |
▪ II. underˈlay, v.
[OE. underlecgan (see under-1 4 a and lay v.), = MDu. and Du. onderleggen, MHG. underlegen (G. unter-), MSw. undirlaggia (Sw. underlagga), MDa. and Da. underlægge.]
1. a. trans. To support by placing something beneath; to furnish with something laid below. Also fig.
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xix. 143 Ðonne bið se elnboᵹa underled mid pyle & se hnecca mid bolstre. c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 144 Þa bæd he hi anre sylle, þæt he mihte þæt hus on ða sæ healfe mid þære underlecgan. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3388 He is under-leiden wið an ston, Til sunne him seilede in ðe west. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 327 They vnderlaye them with grasse. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 60 They vse to set the heads vnderlaying them with a Tileshard. 1658 A. Fox Würtz' Surg. ii. xiv. 110 You ought not to stitch any wounded Finger,..but underlay it with little splinters. 1679 Moxon Mech. Exerc. ix. 157 If the Board be too thin, they underlay that Board upon every Joyst with a Chip. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. II. 10 b, Another way of making the weight slip along..is by underlaying it cross-ways with Rollers. 1851 Athenæum Oct. 1049/1 Their project of underlaying the sea with electric wires. |
b. To furnish with a lining or backing.
| 1502 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 302 Franch tanne to be ane cote to Jacob..v quartaris demy ostad to underlay the bordoring of it. |
† c. To furnish (shoes) with additional soling-pieces or heel-plates. Also in fig. context. Obs.
| c 1530 [see underlaid ppl. a. 2]. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. F 4, If the sooles be naught (as they be indeede) yet must they be vnderlaied with other peeces of leather, to make them seeme thicke. 1587 Turberv. Epit. 190 b, The heeles they vnderlay With clouting clamps of steele. 1632 Holland Cyrupædia 181 The Medes use..such a kind of shooes, as they might underlay closely and out of sight. 1661 K. W. Conf. Charac. To Rdr. (1860) 1 Should I, like an vnthrifty cobler, haue vnderlayed the rotten soles of these now worn out buskings, with the new and costly leather of applause. 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 1272 To underlay a shoe, suppingere. |
| fig. 1592 Nashe Four Lett. Confut. 7 Then wil I bind my selfe prentise to a Cobler, and fresh vnderlay all those writings of mine that haue trodde awrie. 1603 Dekker Wonderfull Yeare E 3 b, Being a pollitike cobler, and remembring what peece of work he was to vnderlay. ? 1622 Fletcher Love's Cure v. iii, Our souls have trode awry in all mens sight, We'll underlay 'em, till they go upright. |
d. Printing. To place paper or cardboard under (type, etc.) in order to raise to the required level for printing.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxiv. 291 If any Wooden Letters..are too Low, (as they generally be) he Vnder-lays them. 1880 Scribner's Mag. May 42/2 The pressman underlays the plate, by pasting on its under side bits of paper of suitable size. 1888 Jacobi Printers' Vocab., Underlay, the process of making-ready under type or cuts. |
e. Early Mus. To place (the text of a song, etc.) in relation to the music.
| 1934 A. Hughes Anglo-French Sequelae 7 Is there any satisfactory reason adducible to explain why the music of the Verba-passages should be underlaid with a text, and not the rest? 1949 W. Apel Notation of Polyphonic Music 900–1600 (ed. 4) ii. ii. 118 This composition also serves to illustrate the problem of text-underlaying in early music... The original frequently leaves considerable room for doubt..as to the ‘correct’ placing of the words. 1960 D. Stevens Hist. Song 88 The text does not fit the ligatures of the tenor part... But it makes good sense when underlaid to the soprano part. |
2. a. To place (something) beneath.
| c 1000 ælfric Gram. xxviii. (Z.) 167 Subpono, ic under⁓lecge. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 511/1 Vnderleyyn, idem quod underputtyn. 1573 Twyne æneid xii. N n j, A tower stronge..the prince..had built alone, And choules [? read roules] had vnderlayd [L. subdideratque rotas]. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxii. ¶10 If a Page be too big for his Grasp, he underlays the Slice of a Galley. |
b. To put underground, to bury.
Used punningly with allusion to sense 1 c.
| 1639 Conceits, Clinches, etc. (1860) 40 If any aske why this same stone was made? (Know) for a cobler newly under⁓layd Here for his overboasting. |
† 3. To make subject; to submit. Obs.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter viii. 7 Þ ou vnderlaide [L. subjecisti] alle þinges Vnder his fete. a 1300 Cursor M. 18266 Sin þou þe king o blis werraid And sua þi-self has vnder-laid. 1382 Wyclif Jer. xxvii. 12 Vnderleith [L. subjicite] ȝoure neckus vnder the ȝoc of the king of Babyloyne. |
4. To lie under or beneath; = underlie v. 3.
| 1591 Spenser Virg. Gnat 99 Ne cares he if the..glistering of golde, which vnderlayes The summer beames, doe blinde his gazing eye. 1611 Cotgr., Haulse, the vnderlaying of a shooe, or peece of leather that vnderlayes it. 1799 Kirwan Geol. Ess. 178 In the south of France it occurs reposing on granite, and underlaying basalt. Ibid., In the Altaischan mountains it sometimes underlays argillite. 1826 E. Irving Babylon II. vii. 227 Our brethren and friends, who still under⁓lay the curse. 1861 G. W. Dasent Burnt Njal I. Introd. p. xxviii, [The right of duel] underlaid all their early legislation. |
5. intr. Mining. To slope, incline from the perpendicular; = underlie v. 5.
| 1728 Phil. Trans. XXXV. 403 The Sides of the Load..constantly underlay either to the North or South. 1802 J. Mawe Min. Derby Gloss. s.v., When a vein hades, or inclines from a perpendicular line, it is said to underlay. 1855 [J. R. Leifchild] Cornwall 101 A lode which underlays towards the north. |