pink slip
noun
notice of dismissal from one's job.
pink slip
1 Americannoun
pink-slip
2
American
[pingk-slip]
/ ˈpɪŋkˈslɪp /
verb (used with object)
pink-slipped,
pink-slipping
pink slip
British
noun
Etymology
Origin of pink slip1
First recorded in 1910–15
Origin of pink-slip2
First recorded in 1950–55
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.
See Examples For:
Will artificial intelligence improve workers’ lives, or hand them the equivalent of a pink slip?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Colbert was given a pink slip with a long tail this year.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2025
Lief, who received a pink slip in February — it later was rescinded — said “it would be impossible not to worry about” the possibility of layoffs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2025
It looks like I’ll be commuting more—but for how long before I, too, get a pink slip without warning or reason?
From Slate ● Feb. 3, 2025
She was wearing her pink slip, and it bore no blooms of blood.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
After several pink-slip owners during and after World War II, Palmdale began to be coveted by the city of L.A. in the early 1970s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2023
With the end of the 2018 slate for non-playoff teams comes the inevitable pink-slip fest known infamously as "Black Monday," when most teams looking to make a leadership change fire their head coach.
From Fox News ● Dec. 31, 2018
It was Friday afternoon, the optimal pink-slip window.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 12, 2018
But on the manager side, Mr. Wiedefeld has much broader authority to pink-slip bad employees.
From Washington Times ● May 24, 2016
Finally, there’s the pink-slip table in the back.
From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2014
Which can only mean they might be NHL Seattle coaching candidates a year from now once pink-slipped by their respective squads.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 21, 2020
He has been super-annuated, pink-slipped, rendered redundant, P45-ed, by the real life character Homer Jackson and a fictional character who will appear in the third volume.
From The Guardian ● May 27, 2019
For those who question whether Ned Colletti should be pink-slipped immediately, three words provide the answer:
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2014
Of course, layoffs aren’t new at Cisco, which pink-slipped 6500 people in 2011.
From Forbes ● Aug. 15, 2013
When she was pink-slipped at in 1996, Brown, typically, did not slink into pampered retirement.
From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2012
One of those alternatives vanished last week as Ross Perot shut down his campaign with all the brutality of a plant manager pink-slipping loyal workers at Christmas.
From Time Magazine Archive
It's Montgomery Ward announcing that it is ending 128 years of American retailing history by closing its 250 stores and pink-slipping its 37,000 employees.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
