In basketball, a lay-up is a shot you take when you are right under the basket, or very close. You jump and lay the ball up onto the board, or softly into the hoop with one hand — not a long throw from far away. It is one of the first shots children learn; people talking about the game call an easy chance “a lay-up.” You will also see it written layup, one word. Though actually, laid up in ordinary English can mean stuck in bed because you are ill, and that is a different path of the same little verb lay up. For this word as a sports noun, it is the close shot.