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The example sentences in WWWJDIC all use the word "首" in the "fire" sense (e.g. 彼を首にしてやる) hence I was wondering is the term only used to refer to "firing" someone?

Or is it also used to refer to students who have just graduated and not yet found a job (they have never had a job before so they can't be fired can they)?

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    Can you explain why you would think that it had another meaning?
    – Amanda S
    Aug 25, 2011 at 0:40
  • @Amanda well the link (in the question) writes: (3) unemployed person aka. without a job which had nothing to do with "firing". However the example sentences all have that nuance, hence the clash in meaning and need for clarification.
    – Pacerier
    Aug 25, 2011 at 4:50

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No, you can't use 首 to refer to students who have just graduated and don't have a job yet.

Pardon me if I am incorrect here, but I think maybe you think that "首にする" means "turn (someone) into a 首", and so 首 is an idiom for "unemployed person" or something. [Edit: My apologies, it looks like you were just taking the word of EDICT, which (wrongly, I think) makes exactly this claim.] This is not the case, though. "首にする" ultimately comes from the metaphor of beheading (!) and although it can be extended to other forms (もう首だろう etc.), it only refers to the act of firing/being fired, not to the result (being unemployed). So, it is not relevant to recent graduates... or any unemployed person, actually, except insofar as you can talk about their past: "She was fired in May," etc.)

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