overˈlaying, vbl. n.
[f. overlay v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb overlay, in various senses (in early quots. fig. oppression); concr. that with which something is overlaid, a covering.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 212 In þe world shulen ȝe haue over-leiynge [MS. Douce 321 over-lyinge; John xvi. 33 in the world ȝe schulen haue pressing, gloss or ouer⁓leying]. 1611 Bible Exod. xxxviii. 17 The overlaying of their chapiters of silver. 1839 T. C. Hansard Treat. Printing & Type-Founding (1841) 117 Anciently, the artist in wood contented himself with producing his lights and shades by cutting his lines..upon a plane, leaving to the printer the task of producing the required effects by a tedious process of overlaying. 1862 R. H. Patterson Ess. Hist. & Art 135 Marked..by an overlaying rather than by any displacement of the native population. 1890 Newcastle Daily Chron. 26 Dec. 3/1 Last week no less than twenty-one London infants under a year old died from suffocation—in other words from ‘overlaying’. 1896 T. L. De Vinne in Moxon's Mech. Exerc., Printing 426 The underlaying or overlaying of types..to correct inequalities of impression. 1967 V. Strauss Printing Industry vii. 428/2 Overlaying serves two purposes: one is to level the impression and the other to provide varying pressure. |