Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Origin: LAY1 + -er

layer

1 noun
     
lay‧er1 S3 W3 [countable]
1 an amount or piece of a material or substance that covers a surface or that is between two other things
layer of
A thick layer of dust lay on the furniture.
The moon was shining through a thin layer of cloud.
He pulled off layer upon layer of clothing (=many layers of clothing).
in layers
Arrange the peppers, garlic and tomatoes in layers.
➔ ozone layer
2 one of several different levels in a complicated organization, system, set of ideas etc
layer of
We are operating with fewer layers of management.
There are multiple layers of meaning in the story.
the multi-layered nature of organizations (=they have many layers)
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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