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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 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

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

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

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

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

After his 320-yard tee shot wound up behind a patch of trees far down the left side of the fairway, he made the questionable decision not to lay up in front of the pond.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024

“We had a yard up in Harlem on one hundred thirty- fifth Street where the trains would lay up over night,” Gunn said.

From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell