Skip to content

licenziare

to fire (dismiss)

verb lee-chen-TSYAH-reh Rare

Origin: From licenza (licence, permission), from Latin licentia.

Also means

to licence

Usage Note

Licenziare primarily means to dismiss or fire an employee (è stato licenziato = he was fired/let go). It can also mean to grant a licence or degree, though that sense is formal and rare. The reflexive licenziarsi means 'to resign voluntarily'. It takes avere as auxiliary in compound tenses.

Examples

"Il capo ha licenziato tre dipendenti ieri."

Natural Translation

The boss fired three employees yesterday.

Free starter pack

Building your Italian vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common Italian words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Explore Italian by topic