layaway
AmericanEtymology
Origin of layaway
First recorded in 1880–85; noun use of verb phrase lay away
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.
“Go to Walmart and pay off someone’s layaway account.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026
“It’s a new evolution of a layaway kind of thing,” Murray said.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 4, 2025
What the neighborhood didn’t know was that my dad only had enough money to buy the track jacket – the matching track pants and shell-toe Adidas shoes were still on layaway.
From Salon • Feb. 23, 2024
The festival, which was aptly announced on Valentine’s Day, didn’t tout much else beyond the lineup and the layaway plan with a $19.99 down payment.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 14, 2024
They all wore ski jackets, the kind which, in my day, mothers put on layaway in September, then piled up overtime hours so as to have the thing wrapped and ready for Christmas.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
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.
