The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Furlough \Fur"lough\, n. [Prob. fr. D. verlof, fr. a prefix akin
   to E. for + the root of E. lief, and akin to Dan. forlov, Sw.
   f["o]rlof, G. verlaub permission. See Life, a.] (Mil.)
   Leave of absence; especially, leave given to an officer or
   soldier to be absent from service for a certain time; also,
   the document granting leave of absence.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Furlough \Fur"lough\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Furloughed; p. pr. &
   vb. n. Furloughing.] (Mil.)
   To furnish with a furlough; to grant leave of absence to, as
   to an officer or soldier. Furmonty

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

furlough
    n 1: a temporary leave of absence from military duty
    v 1: dismiss, usually for economic reasons; "She was laid off
         together with hundreds of other workers when the company
         downsized" [syn: furlough, lay off]
    2: grant a leave to; "The prisoner was furloughed for the
       weekend to visit her children"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

91 Moby Thesaurus words for "furlough":
   AWOL, French leave, abscondence, absence, absence without leave,
   absentation, absenteeism, absenting, boot, bounce, break, bump,
   bust, can, cashier, cut, cyclical unemployment, day off, default,
   defrock, degrade, demote, departure, deplume, depose, deprive,
   disappearance, disbar, discharge, disemploy, dismiss, displace,
   displume, drum out, escape, excused absence, expel, fire, fleeing,
   give the ax, give the gate, holiday, hooky, inoccupation, kick,
   kick upstairs, lay off, layoff, leave, leave of absence, leaving,
   let go, let out, liberty, make redundant, nonappearance,
   nonattendance, normal unemployment, paid holiday, paid vacation,
   pension off, read out of, release, remove, replace, retire,
   running away, sabbatical, sabbatical leave, sabbatical year, sack,
   seasonal unemployment, separate forcibly, shore leave, sick leave,
   strip, superannuate, surplus, suspend, technological unemployment,
   time off, truancy, truantism, turn off, turn out, unemployment,
   unemployment insurance, unexcused absence, unfrock, vacation,
   weekend