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

For established software companies, charging a client solely based on how many of its employees use the technology is no longer a viable solution, because AI-powered efficiency gains could lead firms to lay off workers.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026

Boston Scientific plans to lay off staff and incur $700 million to $800 million in charges under a restructuring plan to be completed by 2029.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

They are among the 8,000 employees -- some 10 percent of the workforce -- Meta said it would lay off in Spring, as it pushes to redirect resources toward an ambitious AI agenda.

From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026

If the regulations had gone into effect, Kirkland said he would have had to lay off nearly 200 of the cardroom’s 250 employees.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

He said the Big Buckwater River, which lay off to the southeast of the plantation, was just a little stream compared to the Choptank, and the Choptank was less than nothing compared to the Bay.

From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry