lay-up
[lay v.1 60.]
1. A period during which a person or thing is (temporarily) out of employment or use, as a ship in winter.
| 1927 Daily Mail 7 Apr. 3/6 During the winter lay-up of these vessels their passenger accommodation has been thoroughly overhauled. 1929 Amer. Speech V. 72 A compulsory stopping on the ‘[cattle-]drive’ is a ‘lay up’. 1955 Times 10 May 17/4 The winter demand brought tankers out of lay-up. 1959 C. Ogburn Marauders (1960) iii. 87 There were frequent lay-ups, and during one of these the men in a car down the train evidently spotted a couple of ducks beside the tracks. 1967 Coast to Coast 1965–66 160 The big hall where the Jap pearlfishers dossed during lay⁓up. |
2. a. The operation of laying up in the manufacture of laminated material (see lay v.1 60 m). b. The assembly of layers ready for bonding so produced.
| 1942 T. D. Perry Mod. Plywood vi. 169 The lay-up..consists in assembling the layers of veneer and/or lumber with the adhesive. 1950 Webster Add., Lay-up, an assembly of layers of veneers or cores for pressing. 1965 Plastics Tooling & Manuf. Handbk. (Amer. Soc. Tool & Manuf. Engineers) iii. 35 In wet layup, the workman saturates a piece of fabric in resin, and then may wring out the excess resin and drape the cloth on the laminate. 1972 Physics Bull. Nov. 665/2 Layup, a laminate that has been assembled, but not cured. |
3. Basketball. In full, lay-up shot. (See quot. 1961.)
| 1948 A. F. Rupp Championship Basketball xv. 130 The drill gives the boys stamina and endurance and helps teach the lay-up shot when going in with the greatest speed. 1958 A. L. Colbeck Mod. Basketball iii. 59 In good-class basketball most plays are designed to get a player free for a lay-up shot. 1959 P. Roth Goodbye, Columbus ii. 35, I took my set shot and, of course, missed. With the Lord's blessing and a soft breeze, I made the lay-up. 1961 J. S. Salak Dict. Amer. Sports 260 Layup shot,..a shot taken from underneath or very close to the basket. On this type shot, the ball usually is banked off the backboard, but on occasion the player, on a straight run toward the basket, will ‘lay’ the ball up to the basket without using the backboard. 1967 Boston Herald 1 Apr. 16/4 There wasn't anyone in the Boston contingent who could recall him ever blowing three layups in a game before. 1969 Z. Hollander Mod. Encycl. Basketball 121 He could also score on jumpers from the corner, driving lay-ups or tip-ins of rebounds. 1974 Greenville (S. Carolina) News 22 Apr. 13/3 Havlicek sank a layup with 26 seconds left, putting Boston safely ahead. |