From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlay off phrasal verb1 lay somebody ↔ offLEAVE A JOB OR ORGANIZATION to stop employing someone because there is no work for them to do → lay-off The company laid off 250 workers in December. Millions of people have been laid off in the steel industry.2 lay off (something) informalSTOP HAPPENING to stop using or doing something I think you’d better lay off alcohol for a while.lay off doing something I had to lay off running for several months.3 lay off (somebody) informal to stop annoying someone or hurting them Just lay off, will you! I wish he’d lay off me!4 lay something ↔ off to pass the ball to someone in your team in a game such as football – used in sports reportslay something off to somebody Murphy has the ball and then lays it off to Owen. → lay→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
lay off• Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.• Look, I don't want to argue with you, so just lay off.• 3000 car workers have been be laid off at the factory in Cleveland.• An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.• He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.• We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.• The station has laid off one-third of its staff.• I'm trying to lay off rich food for a while to lose some weight.• We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.• If he really wants to write the book, he'll need to lay off the drink until he does it.• He must lay off the kif.• Lay off the swearing, if you don't mind.• Hey, lay off Vinnie, will you? He hasn't done you any harm.• The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.lay off (something)• Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.• An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.• He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.• We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.• The station has laid off one-third of its staff.• We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.• He must lay off the kif.• The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.lay off (somebody)• Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.• An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.• He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.• We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.• The station has laid off one-third of its staff.• We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.• He must lay off the kif.• The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers. lay something off to somebody• Neville laid the ball off to Emile Heskey, who squared it into the six-yard box for Scholes to turn it in.• Quakers broke out of defence, Cork laying the ball off to give Gaughan a clear run on goal.• He drew the top card and laid it off to his right.lay-offˈlay-off noun [countable] LEAVE A JOB OR ORGANIZATIONan occasion when an employer ends a worker’s employment for a temporary period of time because there is not enough work more lay-offs in the car industry → lay offFrom Longman Business Dictionarylay somebody → off phrasal verb [transitive] HUMAN RESOURCESto stop employing a worker, usually when there is not enough work for them to doThe group plans to lay off 10% of its workforce. → see also lay-off → lay→ See Verb tablelay-offˈlay-off, layoff noun [countable] HUMAN RESOURCESthe act of stopping a worker’s employment because there is not enough work for them to doa layoff affecting more than 500 workersSome employees at the company are getting layoff notices (=letters saying they will be losing their jobs). 