unemploy

unemploy

English

Etymology

un- +‎ employ

Verb

unemploy (third-person singular simple present unemploys, present participle unemploying, simple past and past participle unemployed)

1. (transitive) To cause someone to become unemployed.
   • 1978, Fred Caloren, Michel Chossudovsky, Paul Gingrich, Is the Canadian Economy Closing Down?, Black Rose Books Ltd. →ISBN, page 88

     In addition, new technologies are adopted which are less labour-using, thus unemploying workers. Over the postwar years, factors of this sort have contributed to a gradual upward drift in unemployment rates, even during expansions.

   • 1987, Advance Papers, IEEE Computer Society Press

     It is, however, a reality that some developers are concerned that code generators and the like will "unemploy" them.

   • 1997, Tom Clancy, Executive Orders, Penguin →ISBN, page 385

     "Put us all out of business, especially you, Cathy. One of the first things they'll edit out of the human genome is myopia, and diabetes and that — " "It'll unemploy you before it unemploys me, Professor," Cathy said with an impish smile.

   • 1999, Gregory Cajete, A People's Ecology: Explorations in Sustainable Living, Book Marketing Group →ISBN, page 67

     Agriculture, which is arguably the biggest business in the world, is also the single most environmentally destructive human activity. It is increasingly technology based and “unemploys” people at a dramatic rate.

   • 2009, Shayla Black, Seduce Me In Shadow, Simon and Schuster →ISBN, page 167

     “This is off the record. If one word of this appears in your tabloid, I will use all my wealth and connections to shut it down and unemploy you permanently.”

   • 2013, Jon Stewart, 'Morsi "Viva Hate"', The Daily Show 2013-04-01

     Oh, good! Who's that guy? I bet he's a terror! What's he been, sabotaging Egypt's infrastructure? Or harassing Egyptian women on the streets? Or unemploying Egyptian people? What's he do?

   • 2014, Benjamin Powell, Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy, Cambridge University Press →ISBN, page 25

     Advocating any policy to raise wages that does not raise these bounds risks raising workers' compensation above their productivity; thus, unemploying the workers that the activists were trying to help.

Translations

to cause to become unemployed