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

The result: Birds lay up to three or four times as many eggs as in nature.

From The Daily Beast

He shall come into Aiath, he shall pass into Magron: at Machmas he shall lay up his carriages.

From Project Gutenberg

Some money I do and can lay up, but not much, being worth now above L700, besides goods of all sorts.

From Project Gutenberg

If I can persuade him to store his autos and lay up his yacht and sell off his polo ponies—I'll try it, anyhow.

From Project Gutenberg

If no one was to lay up money, there would be no one to pay for work, yet toil was considered to be a duty.

From Project Gutenberg

He does it just as men lay away money for ‘a rainy day,’ as we say, and as squirrels lay up a store of nuts for the cold weather.

From Project Gutenberg