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licencier

to lay off

verb lee-sahn-SYEH Rare

Also means

to dismiss

Usage Note

licencier means to dismiss an employee from their job, especially for economic reasons (redundancy). It is the standard HR and legal term — licenciement économique is 'economic redundancy'. The related noun is licenciement. Do not confuse with renvoyer (to fire for cause) or démissionner (to resign voluntarily).

Examples

"L'entreprise a dû licencier dix employés."

Natural Translation

The company had to lay off ten employees.

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