furlough

From Dutch verlof (“furlough”), probably from Middle Low German verlōf (“furlough, permission”) (possibly via German Verlaub), from the verb verlōven (“to allow”), from Old Saxon far- + levian (“to give over, leave”).

From Middle Low German also German Verlaub, Danish forlov. Doublet of leave.

• Hyphenation: fur‧lough
• (British) IPA^(key): /ˈfɜː(ɹ).ləʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɝ.loʊ/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ləʊ

furlough (countable and uncountable, plural furloughs)

1. A leave of absence or vacation.
   1. (US) especially one granted to a member of the armed forces, or to a prisoner.
      • 1957, James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”, in Going to Meet the Man‎^[1], Dial, published 1965:

        And I had a lot of things on my mind and I pretty well forgot my promise to Mama until I got shipped home on a special furlough for her funeral.

   2. (British) especially one granted to a missionary.
2. The documents authorizing such leave.
3. A period of unpaid time off, used by an employer to reduce costs.
   • 2008 November 7, Jon Ortiz, “State workers rip Schwarzenegger's job furlough plan”, in The Sacramento Bee‎^[2]:

     The state estimates the one-day-a-month furlough spread over the 18 months of the plan would amount to a 5 percent cut in pay.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:furlough.

furlough (third-person singular simple present furloughs, present participle furloughing, simple past and past participle furloughed)

1. (transitive) To grant a furlough to (someone).
2. (transitive) To have (an employee) not work in order to reduce costs; to send (someone) on furlough.
   • 2025 January, Niklas Amberg, Richard Friberg, Chad Syverson, “Have We Got News For You: Firm-Level Evidence on the Optimal Choice of Expected Capacity Utilization”, in NBER Working Papers, number 33400, page 4:

     This implies, for example, that firms should not revise their estimated production capacity downwards when furloughing workers, but should do so after laying off staff permanently.

• furlough on Wikipedia.Wikipedia