as in ending
to bring (as an action or operation) to an immediate end
you need to lay off eating those jelly doughnuts, or you'll end up looking like one
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for laying off
Verb
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Talarico’s victory marks a preliminary triumph for Democrats who argued that the path to ending the party’s 32-year statewide losing streak runs through coalition-building.—
Nik Popli,
Time,
4 Mar. 2026 -
With Monday evening performances canceled and piles of snow keeping pedestrians and drivers at bay, total grosses fell to $26,036,589 for the week ending March 1, down from $32M the previous week.—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
3 Mar. 2026
Verb
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After Elmarko Jackson’s flagrant foul stopping a dunk in transition — the play was called a common foul but quickly upgraded to a flagrant-one — the Jayhawks and Sun Devils came together.—
Shreyas Laddha,
Kansas City Star,
4 Mar. 2026
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The car seemed to struggle to merge left into a turn lane, stopping about 30 feet short of the intersection and blocking a lane of traffic.—
Michael Butler,
Miami Herald,
3 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The White House budget chief’s reported aversion to seeing the deficit widen further on the back of a bigger military bill highlights a phenomenon observed by historian Niall Ferguson, who has said any great power that spends more on debt servicing than on defense risks ceasing to be a great power.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
24 Feb. 2026
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Please keep praying without ceasing.—
Madeleine Marr,
Miami Herald,
24 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The children of these parents will be more likely to go to college and succeed in a career themselves, halting generational cycles of poverty.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Mar. 2026
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Asian markets fell sharply, with South Korea’s stock exchange briefly halting trading.—
Tom Chivers,
semafor.com,
4 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The United Arab Emirates is considering cutting off Iranian access to billions of dollars held in the Gulf state, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.—
Anniek Bao,
CNBC,
6 Mar. 2026
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And people very quickly begin to think about cutting off electricity, cutting off water, damage to their cities.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
1 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Like clockwork, the City of Boston released its annual payroll just before shutting off the lights for the month.—
Joe Dwinell,
Boston Herald,
28 Feb. 2026
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If the patient moves, the system can react instantly, shutting off the beam to help prevent harm to healthy tissue, according to a press release.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Vrabel first held a press conference at a podium inside the Indiana Convention Center before breaking off into a less formal side session with local reporters later.—
Doug Kyed,
Boston Herald,
25 Feb. 2026
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While that thankfully hasn't been the case this year, the county did have a hit-and-run involving a semi breaking off a snowplow mirror.—
Hope Karnopp,
jsonline.com,
4 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Implementing slow parenting doesn’t necessarily mean cutting out all extracurricular activities from your child’s life.—
Alex Vance,
Parents,
25 Feb. 2026
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Even cutting out one to two dryer loads per week can make a big difference.—
Emily Benda Gaylord,
The Spruce,
23 Feb. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Laying off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/laying%20off. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.
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