Third person singular present tense of disemploy; to remove someone from employment or cause them to lose their job.
From dis- (reversal prefix) + employ (from Old French emploier, meaning to use or engage). The prefix dis- negates or reverses the action of employment, creating a word meaning to undo employment.
This word became particularly common during economic downturns and recessions when mass layoffs occurred—newspapers in the 1980s used 'disemploy' frequently, though we now prefer 'lay off' or 'let go,' showing how language evolves when old terms feel too formal for emotional realities.
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