as in to store
to put (something of future use or value) in a safe or secret place
an eating disorder that would impel her to lay up candy bars in her closet for all-night food binges
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of lay up
Considering a mature colony can include up to 400,000 worker ants, a queen can lay up to 1,000 eggs a day, and that there can be several colonies per acre of land, fire ants can sometimes seem like the perfect pest.
—
Gareth McGrath, USA Today, 28 June 2025
Production came later, in 2014, when he was laid up in bed for three months with an illness.
—Elias Leight, Billboard, 13 June 2025
Both players once again laid up and were each lucky to even par the hole.
—Kendall Capps, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 June 2025
Female cicadas can lay up to 600 eggs, inserting them into the branches of trees and shrubs with their ovipositor (egg-laying organ), according to the University of Massachusetts.
—Mariyam Muhammad, Cincinnati Enquirer, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for lay up
Gareth McGrath, USA Today, 28 June 2025
Production came later, in 2014, when he was laid up in bed for three months with an illness.
—Elias Leight, Billboard, 13 June 2025
Both players once again laid up and were each lucky to even par the hole.
—Kendall Capps, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 June 2025
Female cicadas can lay up to 600 eggs, inserting them into the branches of trees and shrubs with their ovipositor (egg-laying organ), according to the University of Massachusetts.
—Mariyam Muhammad, Cincinnati Enquirer, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for lay up
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lay up
Verb
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Carbon credit monetization – Forward-looking companies are already earning credits by capturing and storing emissions, feeding into voluntary and compliance carbon markets.—
Peter Bendor-Samuel,
Forbes.com,
12 Sep. 2025
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Hospitals can store medical records, lab results, imaging scans, and real time feeds from bedside monitors in a single hub.—
Matthew Kayser,
USA Today,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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From left: Katt Campbell lays in hospital with Lincoln on her chest; and shows her bump during the pregnancy.—
Alyce Collins,
MSNBC Newsweek,
24 Aug. 2025
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When Nelson got up again, almost 40 shell casings lay in the street.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
12 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Thousands of pages of documents stashed in drawers, stuffed in bags, and piled in boxes in a bathtub chronicle every step of their 16-year quest for justice.—
Sheryl Estrada,
Fortune,
9 Sep. 2025
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By Monday, some eighteen hundred students had dropped by, and the goods had largely been picked clean—Tetris’d into Ubers, hauled down subway stairs, or just stashed in reusable bags.—
Ben McGrath,
New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2025
Video
Lay vs. Lie
Editor Emily Brewster clarifies the difference.
Cite this Entry
“Lay up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lay%20up. Accessed 16 Sep. 2025.
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