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.

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.