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• lay-up
  lay-up

  noun

  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.
• lay up
  lay up

  verb

  to store or reserve for future use

lay-up

American  

[lay-uhp] / ˈleɪˌʌp /

Or layup

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.

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lay up British  

verb

1. to store or reserve for future use

2. informal (usually passive) to incapacitate or confine through illness

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lay up Idioms  

1. see laid up; lay in.

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Etymology

Origin of lay-up

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lay-up lay up

Haliburton's winning lay-up was the end of an uninterrupted eight-point run which swung the game in the Pacers' favour.

From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2025

The case presented to them is a lay-up.

From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2024

Saint Peter’s had a sweet alley-oop toward the end of the half and Jaylen Murray finished the half with a buzzer-beating lay-up to possibly give the team some momentum going into the break.

From Fox News ● Mar. 25, 2022

He’d give it away, though, 33 seconds later after the ball hit his foot as he tried to go up for a lay-up to break the tie.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 1, 2022

I tell him that just because your teammate gets fouled on a lay-up doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever drive to the lane again.

From "The Crossover" by Kwame Alexander

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 ● May 16, 2024

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

From NewsForKids.net ● Apr. 15, 2024

Female bedbugs can deposit one to five eggs a day and may lay up to 200 to 500 eggs in their lifetime.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2024

A three-year-old colony can hold as many as 100,000 fire ants and a mature queen can lay up to 5,000 eggs per day.

From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2024

Doc lay up there with his rough, dark-skinned feet pointing at me while he folded and braided corn husks into the shape of a rose.

From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce

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