pink-slipped
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Adjective: - Having lost your job; dismissed from employment: Describes a person who has been terminated from their position by their employer. The term originates from the historical practice of providing a notice of termination on a pink-colored slip of paper.
Usage
This adjective is used attributively (before a noun) or predicatively (after a linking verb) to describe the state of being unemployed due to dismissal. - Attributive use: Describes a noun directly. - Predicative use: Describes the subject of a sentence via a verb like "to be."
Examples
- Attributive:
- The pink-slipped workers gathered their personal belongings from their desks.
- She offered career counseling to pink-slipped employees from the factory.
- Predicative:
- After the merger, hundreds of staff were pink-slipped.
- He has been pink-slipped twice in the last three years.
Advanced Usage
- The term often carries a connotation of sudden or impersonal dismissal, typically not for cause (like poor performance) but due to broader reasons like downsizing, restructuring, or economic conditions.
- It is frequently used in news reports and discussions about labor economics.
Variants and Related Words
- Pink slip (noun): The notice of dismissal itself.
- He received his pink slip on Friday afternoon.
- To pink-slip (verb, less common): To dismiss someone from their job.
- The company pink-slipped 20% of its workforce.
Synonyms
- Laid off
- Dismissed
- Terminated
- Let go
- Made redundant (common in British English)
Antonyms
- Employed
- Hired
- Retained
Related Idioms/Phrases
- To get/give the pink slip: To be dismissed or to dismiss someone.
- After the error, he was afraid he would get the pink slip.
- To be shown the door: A more general idiom for being forced to leave, often from a job.
- For chronic lateness, he was finally shown the door.
Adjective
- having lost your job