lay-up
Americannoun
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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.
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the operation of assembling veneers for pressing into plywood.
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the operation of applying alternate layers of material and a binder to form a bonded material.
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lay.
verb
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to store or reserve for future use
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informal (usually passive) to incapacitate or confine through illness
Etymology
Origin of lay-up
First recorded in 1940–45; noun use of verb phrase lay up
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The case presented to them is a lay-up.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2024
With 6.7 seconds left, Johnson timed his leap perfectly to block a lay-up from Donovan Mitchell, who scored 28 points.
From BBC ● Dec. 13, 2022
You’re playing hoops in the driveway and go up for a lay-up.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2022
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
Felix grabbed a rebound, put it back up for an easy lay-up, and then passed the ball back to Benji.
From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty
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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
Taylor, the overnight leader, saved par on No. 18 after being forced to lay up and shot 68.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 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
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.