lay off
Britishverb
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(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
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informal (intr) to leave (a person, thing, or activity) alone
lay off me, will you!
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(tr, adverb) to mark off the boundaries of
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(tr, adverb) soccer to pass or deflect (the ball) to a team-mate, esp one in a more advantageous position
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gambling another term for hedge
noun
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the act of suspending employees
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a period of imposed unemployment
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Terminate a person from employment. For example, When they lost the contract, they had to lay off a hundred workers . This expression formerly referred to temporary dismissals, as during a recession, with the idea that workers would be hired back when conditions improved, but with the tendency of businesses to downsize in the 1990s it came to mean “terminate permanently.” [First half of 1800s]
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Mark off the boundaries, as in Let's lay off an area for a flower garden . [Mid-1700s]
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Stop doing something, quit, as in Lay off that noise for a minute, so the baby can get to sleep , or She resolved to lay off smoking . [Early 1900s]
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Stop bothering or annoying someone, as in Lay off or I'll tell the teacher . [ Slang ; c. 1900]
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Place all or part of a bet with another bookmaker so as to reduce the risk. For example, Some bookmakers protect themselves by laying off very large bets with other bookmakers . [Mid-1900s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Target has laid off some office and warehouse staff in recent months.
From MarketWatch
Plenty raised concerns that other executives might now follow suit and more aggressively lay off their own employees.
Payments company Block’s decision to lay off 40% of its staff thanks to AI gains further fueled the belief that technological advancements could lead to broad job losses.
On Thursday, payments company Block said it was laying off 4,000 employees, 40% of its workforce, because AI has “changed what it means to build and run a company,” founder Jack Dorsey told shareholders.
Amazon is also contending with the aftermath of two rounds of job cuts in six months, resulting in around 30,000 white-collar workers being laid off.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
