inlay
1. Dentistry a filling, made of gold, porcelain, etc., inserted into a cavity and held in position by cement
2. Art decoration made by inlaying
3. an inlaid article, surface, etc.
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
Inlay
A shaped piece of one material embedded in another, usually in the same plane, as part of a surface ornamentation.
Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
inlay
[′in‚lā] (graphic arts)
A picture or ornament made by inserting a material such as metal into a space in metal, stone, or wood; the material (such as wire) may be burnished, heated, or fused.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
inlay, intarsia, marquetry
1. A shaped piece of one material embedded in another as part of a surface ornamentation.
2. Such ornamentation as a whole. Also see encaustic tile.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Inlay
the decoration of an object or building (facade or interior) with designs and images made out of small pieces of marble, ceramic, metal, wood, or mother-of-pearl that are set into a surface. The color or material of an inlay distinguish it from the object that it adorns. However, there are some inlays made out of the same material as the decorated surface, such as wood on wood (intarsia), metal on metal, and stone on stone. In the ancient Orient, Greece, and Rome the eyes in statues and busts were inlaid. In principle, the incrustation of concrete panels in modern prefabricated buildings with small pieces of crushed stone is a form of inlay.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.