Word.ws English Dictionary

lay-off

lay-off is the alternative spelling of layoff.

Meaning of layoff

Noun

layoff (plural layoffs)

  1. (US) A dismissal of employees from their jobs because of tightened budgetary constraints or work shortage (not due to poor performance or misconduct).
  2. A period of time when someone is unavailable for work.
    • One of the muscles on the point of the shoulder was torn loose and it didn't need more than a glance to see that Mr. Hickey was in for a long lay-off. He wouldn't pitch again for quite a spell, if ever;1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post
  3. (UK) A short pass that has been rolled in front of another player for them to kick.
  4. A bet that is laid off, i.e. placed with another bookmaker in order to reduce risk.

Forms of lay-off

plurallay-offs

Origin of lay-off

Deverbal from lay off.

Questions about lay-off

What is lay-off the alternative spelling of?
Lay-off is the alternative spelling of layoff.

Words near lay-off in the dictionary

  1. lay-down misère
  2. lay-down misères
  3. lay-downs
  4. lay-in
  5. lay-ins
  6. lay-off
  7. lay-offs
  8. lay-out
  9. lay-outs
  10. lay-up
  11. lay-ups

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lay-off (page history and authors); layoff (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “lay-off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lay-off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.