Skip to main content
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/
translation icon : 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.

    Blog text (8)

  • 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 encrust
vsto inlay
12 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
9.8

To cover something with many gems or decorations

sets pieces into the surface instead of leaving a surface layer
to imbed
vsto inlay
  • UK
6.0

To put something firmly into a material so it stays there

places decorative pieces into the surface rather than deep inside material

Antonyms

to remove
∞ 1.5

To move something or someone away from a place

How Decorative

tapestry
23 5.6
mosaic
14 4.9
intarsia
  • Specialized
9.6
to inlay
1 5.9
carving
70 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.