lay-up

or lay·up

[ ley-uhp ]

noun

1. Basketball. a shot with one hand from a point close to the basket, in which a player shoots the ball toward the basket, often off the backboard.
2. the operation of assembling veneers for pressing into plywood.
3. the operation of applying alternate layers of material and a binder to form a bonded material.
4. lay ¹( def 40 ).

lay up

verb

1. to store or reserve for future use
2. informal.
   usually passive to incapacitate or confine through illness

Word History and Origins

Origin of lay-up¹

First recorded in 1940–45; noun use of verb phrase lay up

Idioms and Phrases

see laid up ; lay in .

Example Sentences

It was enough to consider laying up, except a creek runs down the middle toward the green, and he had no idea which direction the ball was going with so much mud on it.

From Seattle Times

The damage is caused when the female starts laying her eggs: she will cut into the branches of small trees and shrubs to lay up to 600 eggs inside the bark.

From Salon

Female stink bugs can lay up to 400 eggs, which become adults a little more than a month after hatching.

From NewsForKids.net

After his 320-yard tee shot wound up behind a patch of trees far down the left side of the fairway, he made the questionable decision not to lay up in front of the pond.

From Seattle Times

Korda, tied for the lead, decided when she reached the tee to lay up with a 7-wood instead of trying to drive the green.

From Seattle Times