lay off

British  

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

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noun

1. the act of suspending employees

2. a period of imposed unemployment

lay off Idioms  

1. 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]

2. Mark off the boundaries, as in Let's lay off an area for a flower garden . [Mid-1700s]

3. 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]

4. Stop bothering or annoying someone, as in Lay off or I'll tell the teacher . [ Slang ; c. 1900]

5. 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]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lay off

The cash for the metals sector comes as the Canadian government finds itself in a dispute with Cleveland-Cliffs over the U.S. steel maker’s plan to lay off workers at its Ontario plants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits each week has fallen to historic lows, reinforcing that companies are very reluctant to lay off workers with the economy growing steadily.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

Meta told employees in an internal memo in April that it would lay off 10% of its staff, or roughly 8,000 people, and that affected employees would learn their fate May 20.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

Egeland said the NRC was forced to lay off "female aid workers and female teachers on the primary school level for girls because we don't have enough money".

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

“You need to lay off the books. We have to get through our last year of high school first. We have to get through the summer.”

From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby

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