lay up

lay up (third-person singular simple present lays up, present participle laying up, simple past and past participle laid up)

1. (transitive) To store; to put by.

   Coordinate terms: lay away, lay by, lay in, put aside, put away, put by, save, store, store away, store up

   We must lay up enough stores to get us through the winter.

   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:

     I employed myself in making, as well as I could, a great many baskets, both to carry earth or to carry or lay up anything, as I had occasion; and though I did not finish them very handsomely, yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose […]

2. (transitive) To disable or incapacitate; to confine to bed.

   He was laid up for six weeks with pneumonia.

3. (intransitive) To recuperate or rest; to remain in a place.

   He laid up until recovering from his illness.

   She's been laid up in Reno for weeks.

4. (transitive) To take out of active service.

   The battleship is presently laid up in Portsmouth Harbour.

5. (intransitive) To go out of active service.

   The cruise ship lays up in November for the winter.

   • 1956 February, R. C. Riley, “The Lymington Railway and Isle of Wight Ferry”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:

     The Cinderella of the present trio is the Freshwater, which is laid up in the winter months, when one or other of her ugly sisters is sufficient to cope with the service.

6. (transitive, basketball) To make a layup with (a basketball)

   He takes the pass, he drives, he lays it up and in.

7. (intransitive, golf) To deliberately leave the ball further than necessary from the hole, so as to secure an easier succeeding shot.

   Rather than try to reach the green, he chose to lay up.

8. (slang, US) To have sex; to have a sexual relationship.

• Pauly, uplay