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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

underlay.

To lay (something) underneath something else; to put under.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ʌndəɹˈleɪ/
  1. To lay (something) underneath something else; to put under.

    transitive
    We underlaid the carpet with felt.
  2. To provide a support for something; to raise or support by something laid under.

    transitive
  3. To put a tap on (a shoe).

    transitive
  4. To incline from the vertical.

    ambitransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English underleyen, from Old English underleċġan (“to underlay, prop, support”), equivalent to under- + lay. Cognate with Dutch onderleggen (“to lay or put under”), German unterlegen (“to underlay”), Swedish underlägga (“to underlay”).

noun/ˈʌndəɹˌleɪ/
  1. A layer (of earth, etc.) that lies under another; substratum.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A soft floor covering that lies under a carpet.

    countable · uncountable
  3. Anything that is underlaid.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A piece of paper pasted under woodcuts, stereotype plates, etc. in a form, to bring them up to the necessary level for printing.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  5. Lyrics; or more specifically, the way in which lyrics are assigned to musical notes.

    countable · uncountable
    The underlay in bar 3 is unclear in Handel's manuscript.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English underlay, underlei, equivalent to under- + lay.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.