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Overlay vs Overwrite - What's the difference?

overlay | overwrite |

As verbs the difference between overlay and overwrite

is that overlay is to lay, or spread, something over or across; to cover while overwrite is to destroy old data by recording new data over it.

As a noun overlay

is a piece of paper pasted upon the tympan sheet to improve the impression by making it stronger at a particular place.

overlay

English

Verb

  • To lay, or spread, something over or across; to cover.
  • * Spenser
  • as when a cloud his beams doth overlay
  • * Milton
  • framed of cedar overlaid with gold
  • To overwhelm; to press excessively upon.
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
  • when any country is overlaid by the multitude which live upon it
  • * Bible, 1 Kings iii. 19
  • This woman's child died in the night, because she overlaid it.
  • * Dryden
  • a heap of ashes that o'erlays your fire
  • *1993 , (Pat Barker), The Eye in the Door'', Penguin 2014 (''The Regeneration Trilogy ), p. 371:
  • *:Prostitutes, thieves, girls who ‘overlaid ’ their babies, abortionists who stuck their knitting needles into something vital – did they really need to be here?
  • (printing) To put an on.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (printing) A piece of paper pasted upon the tympan sheet to improve the impression by making it stronger at a particular place.
  • (betting) Odds which are set higher than expected or warranted. Favorable odds.
  • (horse racing) A horse going off at higher odds than it appears to warrant, based on its past performances.
  • A decal attached to a computer keyboard to relabel the keys.
  • * 1994 , Roger Frost, The IT in Secondary Science Book (page 56)
  • The keyboard overlay can be a memory jogger and a great help with spelling. In this way the keyboard makes word processing more accessible to younger as well as special needs children.

    Anagrams

    * English heteronyms

    overwrite

    English

    Verb

  • (computing) To destroy old data by recording new data over it.
  • To cover in writing.