Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to have sexual intercourse.

1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 377: You ain’t gonna be layin’ up with no woman.
1952		I, Mobster 21: They’ll do anything to get a shot. If it’s a woman, she’ll lay up with a dog.
1972		N.C. Heard To Reach a Dream 6: He was over fifty years old, but upon hearing the price for laying up all night he appeared to drop ten years in age.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 153: Other expressions for intercourse – to lay up/back/low, to give it up.
1998		D. Jenkins Rude Behavior 25: ‘But that’s where he lays up with his honeys?’ [...] ‘Two blocks from his own house? Two blocks from his wife?’.

2. (US black) to relax.

1959		A. Anderson ‘Blueplate Special’ in Lover Man 132: I went up to Harlem and got high, and for the rest of the summer I laid up in bed and played crazy.
1960		J. Brosnan Long Season 125: I want everybody to join in. I don’t want anybody laying back while the rest of us are out on the field fighting.
1977		Fidrych & Clark No Big Deal 192: It’s okay when you want to be sociable, when you want stuff happening. But when you want to lay back—.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 176: Else get you some pluck, jus’ lay back smokin’ a reefer, you trippin’.
1999		Dr Dre ‘Still D.R.E.’ 🎵 Whether you’re cooling on a corner with your fly bitch / Laid back in the shack, play this track.
2004		E. Wald Escaping the Delta 181: In the river towns, a guy could lay up with his girl, drink and party all night long.

3. to do nothing specific, to pass time (e.g. in prison).

1965		H. Williamson Hustler 146: So the judge continued the case, and we layed up in the Bridewell [Chicago’s House of Correction] for a day.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 150: I’m just laying back hoping the snitch will get his ass over there.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 244: lay back/low/up [...] 2. Do nothing in particular.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 167: You gonna lay up on state tittie [...] You better get used to its juice.

4. (N.Z. prison) to spend time in solitary confinement.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 105/1: laid back adj. in the pound (sense 1).