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View synonyms for lay off

lay off

verb

  1. tr, adverb to suspend (workers) from employment with the intention of re-employing them at a later date

    the firm had to lay off 100 men

  2. informal.
    intr to leave (a person, thing, or activity) alone

    lay off me, will you!

  3. tr, adverb to mark off the boundaries of
  4. tr, adverb soccer to pass or deflect (the ball) to a team-mate, esp one in a more advantageous position
  5. gambling another term for hedge
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. the act of suspending employees
  2. a period of imposed unemployment
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Example Sentences

Firms lay-off workers and the loss of income starts to multiply as those workers reduce their spending elsewhere.

This steamy heat is the very deuce to work in, and I'll be glad of the lay-off on Sunday.

"I betche Andy just wanted a lay-off, and took that way uh getting it," declared Happy Jack pessimistically.

Such, at least, were my feelings in those long, beautiful June days that followed close on the "lay-off" at Rosenfeld's.

Almost without exception, there were people at home upon whom this annual "lay-off" fell with tragic force.

Having completed his work on the wireless plant at the Navy Yard, Bowen thought himself due for a lay-off.

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