lay off

Verb

lay off (third-person singular simple present lays off, present participle laying off, simple past and past participle laid off)

1. (US, idiomatic, transitive) (of an employer) To dismiss (workers) from employment, e.g. at a time of low business volume or through no fault of the worker, often with a severance package.
   • Four months after arriving in Denver, I was laid off when the pandemic hit. I took on freelance work, whatever I could get, to cover my expenses and stay afloat.2026 April 22, Jillian Sanders, “The Danger of Surrendering Your Financial Independence in a Relationship”, in TIME, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2026

   Synonyms:

   make redundant, let go

2. (transitive) To place all or part of a bet with another bookmaker in order to reduce risk.

   Synonyms:

   hedge one's bets

3. (idiomatic, transitive) To cease, quit, stop (doing something).
   • Lay off the singing, will you! I'm trying to study.
   • When are you gonna lay off smoking?
4. (idiomatic, intransitive, transitive) To stop bothering, teasing, or pestering someone; to leave (someone) alone.
   • Just lay off, okay! I've had enough!
   • Things have been better since the boss has been laying off a little.
5. (ambitransitive) In painting, to apply gentle strokes to smooth a wet coat of paint so as to remove visible roller- or brush-marks, commonly using a dry brush; a similar technique, but using a loaded laying-off brush, may produce a smooth coat of paint when using a roller or the usual brush techniques would leave marks.
   • At any pro paint shop ask for laying off brushes. These are natural bristle, wide, thin brushes designed for tipping off, not for holding a paint load. (Sourced from a web forum exchange)
   • He shows me how to lay off the paint — and moves his paintbrush across the section he had already painted, again and again.

   Synonyms:

   tip off

6. (transitive) To plan out (a navigational course) using a chart.

   Synonyms:

   can, dismiss, fire, sack, terminate, give the axe, give the boot, give their cards, give the chop, give the elbow