laid off

verb

past tense of lay off
as in stopped
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 laid off
  1. stopped
  2. ceased
  3. ended
  4. halted
  5. quit
  6. shut off
  7. broke off
  8. left off
Verb
  • Group argued construction could be irreversible The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is challenging the ballroom, had told the justices that the project would likely become irreversible unless it is stopped now.
    — Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 1 Sep. 2026
  • Bilt, for its part, said the issue had to do with an earlier iteration of its credit cards that had stopped accepting customers.
    — Andy Kroll, ProPublica, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of stopped
Verb
  • According to Reuters, Qalibaf, the Iranian parliament speaker, said that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until military threats ceased and sanctions on Iran were lifted.
    — Christopher Buchanan, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2026
  • History repeats itself Following the decline of prisoner importation in the early 20th century, West Virginia ceased to receive direct federal payments for housing prisoners.
    — Ella Siegrist, The Conversation, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of ceased
Verb
  • The city experienced a recent peak of 719 homicides in 2022, a year before Johnson took office, and ended last year with 416, according to Chicago police statistics.
    — Jake Sheridan, Chicago Tribune, 31 Aug. 2026
  • This is one family’s experience of their last year in Connecticut after major hospitals abruptly ended gender-affirming medical care for trans youth.
    — Dr. SJ Job, Hartford Courant, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of ended
Verb
  • Today, a federal court halted it before this administration could wreak havoc on our elections.
    — Oren Oppenheim, ABC News, 28 Aug. 2026
  • The near miss raised questions about why the commercial flight was cleared for takeoff while Marine One was preparing to depart, a period when airline traffic is typically halted around presidential helicopter operations.
    — Thao Nguyen, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of halted
Verb
  • Craig, now a devoted granddad with a dry sense of humor, began working alongside his father at thirteen, quitting school even though teachers warned him that house moving was a dying trade.
    — Nicola Twilley, New Yorker, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Hep Spyder blamed Dwight for Buffo Carducci’s quitting on him back when Dwight was Hep’s tent boss.
    — Ingrid Vasquez, PEOPLE, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of quit
Verb
  • The company says the feature will detect officers’ abnormal search activity and shut off their access until an agency administrator can review it.
    — Kenny Jacoby, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2026
  • In people with this gene mutation — which experts say applies to about 1 in 250 people in the United States — one or both copies of ANGPTL3 is shut off.
    — Sandee LaMotte, CNN Money, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of shut off
Verb
  • This is the moment a piece of a glacier broke off on the Chinese side of the border.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 30 Aug. 2026
  • The disaster began Wednesday when a massive chunk of ice and rock dozens of times larger than the Empire State Building broke off a mountaintop and triggered the catastrophic flooding, geologists said.
    — Freddie Clayton, NBC news, 29 Aug. 2026
Definition of broke off
Verb
  • And by the looks of the first photos (below), Emily seems to be jetting off to meet her on-again, off-again chef boyfriend Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), picking up where season five left off.
    — Jackie Strause, HollywoodReporter, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Now, the bill can move forward where the previous version left off.
    — Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of left off
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

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

“Laid off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/laid%20off. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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