Overlie

//ˌoʊvɚˈlaɪ// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To lie over or upon

    "The new sediment layers overlie the older rock formations."

  2. 2
    kill by lying on wordnet
  3. 3
    To suffocate by lying upon transitive
  4. 4
    lie upon; lie on top of wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
archarch overbestraddlebestridebridgecover

Example

More examples

"The new sediment layers overlie the older rock formations."

Etymology

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

More for "overlie"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.