Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state of being unemployed, especially involuntarily.
  • noun The percentage or number of people who are involuntarily unemployed.
  • noun Unemployment insurance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The condition of being unemployed; the state of being unused.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Quality or state of being not employed; -- used esp. in economics, of the condition of various social classes when temporarily thrown out of employment, as those engaged for short periods, those whose trade is decaying, and those least competent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of having no job; joblessness.
  • noun The phenomenon of joblessness in an economy.
  • noun The level of joblessness in an economy, often measured as a percentage of the workforce.
  • noun countable A type of joblessness due to a particular economic mechanism.
  • noun countable An instance or period of joblessness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the state of being unemployed or not having a job

Etymologies

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  • "You take my life when you do take the means whereby I live." - William Shakespeare

    July 30, 2008