| Verb | 1.give the axe - terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position; "The boss fired his secretary today"; "The company terminated 25% of its workers"give notice, give the sack, sack, send away, can, force out, displace, fire, dismiss, terminateretire - make (someone) retire; "The director was retired after the scandal"pension off - let go from employment with an attractive pension; "The director was pensioned off when he got senile"clean out - force out; "The new boss cleaned out the lazy workers"furlough, lay off - dismiss, usually for economic reasons; "She was laid off together with hundreds of other workers when the company downsized"squeeze out - force out; "Some employees were squeezed out by the recent budget cuts"remove - remove from a position or an officesend away, send packing, dismiss, drop - stop associating with; "They dropped her after she had a child out of wedlock" | | 2.give the axe - terminate a relationship abruptly; "Mary gave John the axe after she saw him with another woman"give the bounce, give the gatebreak up, part, split, split up, separate, break - discontinue an association or relation; go different ways; "The business partners broke over a tax question"; "The couple separated after 25 years of marriage"; "My friend and I split up" |