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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  

[ley-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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lay-up lay up

The success, clinched by Austin Reaves' lay-up with one second to go, saw the 39-year-old become the NBA's all-time leader in 25 December victories with his 11th in 19 appearances.

From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2024

The towel Murray threw landed at the heels of Davis on the baseline but the heat pack skidded across the floor just as Karl-Anthony Towns was going for a lay-up.

From Seattle Times ● May 8, 2024

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

And when my mother didn’t speak, Lucas started to talk about this new drill he had come up with for dribbling around cones and then going to a lay-up.

From "Okay for Now" by Gary D. Schmidt

A female screwworm fly can lay 200 to 300 eggs at a time and may lay up to 3,000 eggs during her 10 to 30-day lifespan.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

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

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

He missed the fairway on the 18th and had to lay up, hitting a pedestrian wedge to 20 feet.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 14, 2024

Round the other side of the conker tree, I looked at what lay up the bridle path.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell