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laid-off

laid-off

68 4.0
Without a job because the company reduced staff or closed
  • adjective
  • /leɪd ɔf/
  • US
translation icon : despedido
  • People were being laid off everywhere.
  • laid-off workers
  • laid-off employees
  • laid-off teachers

Let's say the people get laid off right from their restaurant job.

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Examples

  • Your father's been laid off!

  • "Ronald and I are just going through some hard times, you know, with him laid off and all."

    Fiction book (1996)
  • I got a friend who was laid off from a job, I want to say six months ago.

  • Will they give you some money for being laid off and all?

  • Three months ago, my father got laid off.

  • Well, to be honest... ...I was laid off from my job about two months ago.

  • I got laid off in April.

  • In the United States, teachers are laid off for reasons of excess supply pretty much at will.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Large numbers of people had been laid off because of the mechanization of the industry.

  • My brother was recently laid-off after the company downsized its workforce.

Synonyms

unemployed
vslaid-off
274 1.7

Without work and looking for a job

specifies that the lack came from company action rather than other causes
out of work
vslaid-off
124 1.8

Without a job and trying to find one

highlights that the absence results from company cutbacks not personal reasons
jobless
vslaid-off
23 1.9

Not having a job

focuses on losing work because of company decisions not general unemployment
pink-slipped
vslaid-off
  • Informal
1 8.1

No longer working at a job because the company laid you off

means loss happened for business reasons rather than personal failure
discharged
vslaid-off
4.1

No longer working for a company because they lost their job

emphasizes separation due to company decisions not individual performance
dismissed
vslaid-off
3.2

A person who no longer has their job because they were fired

refers to loss caused by business reasons rather than personal fault

Antonyms

1.0

Having a paid job

1.1

A person paid to do a job for someone

How Employed

employed
1.0
to furlough
11 7.5
laid-off
  • US
68 4.0
unemployed
274 1.7

Surface Forms

laid-off positive

Morphology

laid-off = lay off (transparent) = lay + off + ed

Formed from the phrasal verb 'lay off' with a past-participle adjective formation; the meaning is directly derived from the verb.

Etymology

Laid-off comes from the verb lay 'to put down' and the word off 'away', giving the image of a worker being moved away from their place at work. So, someone who is laid-off has lost their job because the company needed to cut staff or close a department, not because they did the job badly.