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lays off

verb

present tense third-person singular of lay off
as in stops
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 lays off
  1. stops
  2. ceases
  3. ends
  4. halts
  5. cuts off
  6. breaks off
  7. shuts off
  8. quits
Verb
  • Former Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins hurls a deep ball toward Jefferson in double coverage, and McCardell stops the play.
    — Alec Lewis, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2026
  • Newsom’s moratorium stops the state from carrying out those sentences.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of stops
Verb
  • The turf needs this lead time to absorb the nutrients before growth ceases in winter.
    — Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Melting then ceases, leaving a thin crust on the surface of the fragment.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of ceases
Verb
  • When a relationship ends, language is as much of a casualty as love.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Aikman’s five-year, $90 million contract with ESPN ends after the Super Bowl.
    — Andrew Marchand, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of ends
Verb
  • Boone’s Tyler Dicko halts a promising Jones drive with an interception near the 30 as Jones’ Peyton Carroll scrambled out of the pocket searching for a receiver.
    — Buddy Collings, The Orlando Sentinel, 11 Sep. 2026
  • An Amazon cargo plane crashed at Miami International Airport Sunday afternoon, causing a full ground stop that halts all flights.
    — David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 6 Sep. 2026
Definition of halts
Verb
  • However, the closure of the National Tunnel cuts off all travelers at the midpoint.
    — Megan Shinn, CBS News, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Grylls cuts off the animal’s tongue with a knife and boils it over a campfire.
    — Erin Jensen, USA Today, 9 Aug. 2026
Definition of cuts off
Verb
  • This is the most significant ice calving event (where ice breaks off of a glacier) seen in the Arctic since 2020.
    — Chelsea Gohd, Space.com, 24 Aug. 2026
  • According to the reports, the malfunctions occurred during the ride's signature ‘tilt' portion, where the segment of track containing the ride vehicle breaks off completely and tilts forward 45 degrees before reconnecting to another piece of track at a 90-degree angle to the ground below.
    — Colson Thayer, PEOPLE, 10 June 2026
Definition of breaks off
Verb
  • Most movies are paired with local live acts to fill the air as the crowd mills in or to keep the party going long after the projector shuts off.
    — Kat Chen, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Sep. 2026
  • Inflation has reached absurd heights, the Lebanese pound is all but worthless, and the government shuts off the electricity for more than half of each day.
    — Sheri Linden, HollywoodReporter, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of shuts off
Verb
  • And earlier this week, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for June showed a slight pickup in hiring and quits (an indicator of employee confidence) while layoffs were essentially unchanged.
    — Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 7 Aug. 2026
  • The band quits when the director releases a swarm of bees onto the set (the original clip featured dogs), only to be replaced by look-alikes.
    — Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 5 Aug. 2026
Definition of quits
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

lays into
lays off
lays off (of)
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Cite this Entry

“Lays off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lays%20off. Accessed 17 Sep. 2026.

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