Jump to:

• 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.

---

lay up British  

verb

1. to store or reserve for future use

2. informal (usually passive) to incapacitate or confine through illness

---

lay up Idioms  

1. see laid up; lay in.

---

Etymology

Origin of lay-up

First recorded in 1940–45; noun use of verb phrase lay up

Example Sentences

Haliburton hit the go-ahead lay-up with 1.3 seconds left on the clock as the Pacers sealed a 4-1 series win and following the buzzer supporters entered the court to celebrate.

From BBC • Apr. 30, 2025

The case presented to them is a lay-up.

From Salon • Feb. 14, 2024

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

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