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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

furlough.

A leave of absence or vacation.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfɜː.ləʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɝ.loʊ/Canada, General-American/ˈfɜː.ləʉ/Australia/ˈføː.lɐʉ/New-Zealand
  1. A leave of absence or vacation. Especially one granted to a member of the armed forces, or to a prisoner.

    US · countable · uncountable
  2. A leave of absence or vacation. Especially one granted to a missionary.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  3. The documents authorizing such leave.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A period of unpaid time off, used by an employer to reduce costs.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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- + lōvian (“to trust, believe”). From Middle Low German also German Verlaub, Danish forlov. Doublet of leave.

verb/ˈfɜː.ləʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɝ.loʊ/Canada, General-American/ˈfɜː.ləʉ/Australia/ˈføː.lɐʉ/New-Zealand
  1. To grant a furlough to (someone).

    transitive
  2. To have (an employee) not work in order to reduce costs; to send (someone) on furlough.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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- + lōvian (“to trust, believe”). From Middle Low German also German Verlaub, Danish forlov. Doublet of leave.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.