laying up
laying up is the present participle and gerund of lay up.
Meaning of lay up
Verb
lay up (third-person singular simple present lays up, present participle laying up, simple past and past participle laid up)
- To store; to put by.
- We must lay up enough stores to get us through the winter.
- To disable or incapacitate; to confine to bed.
- He was laid up for six weeks with pneumonia.
- To recuperate or rest; to remain in a place.
- He laid up until recovering from his illness.
- To take out of active service.
- The battleship is presently laid up in Portsmouth Harbour.
- To go out of active service.
- The cruise ship lays up in November for the winter.
- To make a layup with (a basketball)
- He takes the pass, he drives, he lays it up and in.
Questions about laying up
- What is laying up the present participle and gerund of?
- Laying up is the present participle and gerund of lay up.
Words near laying up in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: laying up (page history and authors); lay up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “laying up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/laying_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
