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Glite Dictionary
🪵 A decorative design 🦷 A tooth filling 🎨 To decorate with pieces
to inlay

to inlay

1 5.9
To decorate a surface by fitting pieces of a different material into it
  • verb
  • /ˈɪnˌleɪ/
: incrustar
  • The craftsman is inlaying silver into the guitar body to enhance its aesthetic appeal.

Examples

  • She enjoys inlaying different types of tiles to create stunning mosaics on her garden path.

  • Neighboring office workers and tenants can inlay doors to these balcony ways and use them and all given public facilities as well.

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  • When done the other way around sometimes you're you're inlaying the problem instead of trying to blend deepening it.

  • The artisan spent hours inlaying beautiful gemstones into the wooden surface of the table.

Synonyms

to imbed
vsto inlay
  • UK
12 6.0

To put something firmly into a material so it stays there

places decorative pieces into the surface rather than deep inside material
to encrust
vsto inlay
6 6.7

To cover something thickly with small shiny objects like jewels

places pieces into the surface rather than covering it with a layer
to incrust
vsto inlay
1 9.8

To cover something with many gems or decorations

sets pieces into the surface instead of leaving a surface layer

Antonyms

to remove
∞ 1.5

To move something or someone away from a place

How Decorative

tapestry
26 5.6
mosaic
17 4.9
intarsia
  • Specialized
1 9.6
to inlay
1 5.9
carving
28 2.7

Surface Forms

inlay infinitive
inlaying present participle
inlays third person singular
inlaid past
inlaid past participle

Morphology

inlay = lay (semi-transparent) = in + lay

The meaning is broadly understandable as 'lay into', but the specific craft sense of embedding decorative material in a surface is somewhat specialized.

Etymology

Inlay comes from the parts in- ('in') and lay ('to put'), so to inlay something is to 'lay' pieces into a surface to decorate or fix it, much like laying tiles into a floor.