job

plural jobs · alternative j*b

1. countableuncountableA task.

   I've got a job for you: could you wash the dishes?

   2 more examples

   I didn't speak to many coworkers for the first year on the job.

   And it's my job to take care of the skanks on the road that you bang.

   1996, Cameron Crowe, Jerry Maguire

2. countableuncountableAn economic role for which a person is paid.

   That surgeon has a great job.

   4 more examples

   He's been out of a job since being made redundant in January.

   I was looking for a job and then I found a job / And heaven knows I'm miserable now

   1984, Johnny Marr & Morrissey, “Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now”, in Hatful of Hollow, performed by The Smiths

   Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.

   2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

   Here I am at my new job!

   2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

   Synonyms: métier

3. countableuncountablePlastic surgery.

   He had a nose job.

4. countableuncountableA sex act.

   hand job

   1 more example

   You men have no idea what we're dealing with down there. Teeth placement, and jaw stress, and suction, and gag reflex, and all the while bobbing up and down, moaning and trying to breathe through our noses. Easy? Honey, they don't call it a job for nothing.

   2000 August 6, “Easy Come, Easy Go”, in Sex and the City, season 3, episode 9, spoken by Samantha

5. countableuncountablecomputingA task, or series of tasks, carried out in batch mode (especially on a mainframe computer).
6. countableuncountableA public transaction done for private profit; something performed ostensibly as a part of official duty, but really for private gain; a corrupt official business.
7. countableinformaluncountableA robbery or heist.

   a bank job

   1 more example

   This freak Vernon got the intelligence on the safe job and passed it on to some other freak, a guy that hears voices in his head and talks back to them. […] We don't think [Vernon's squeeze] is in on the heist, but she apparently is in love with this creep who is laying the pipe in her trough!

   2010, J. Lamar, Honor, Deception and Justice, page 53

8. countableuncountableAny affair or event which affects one, whether fortunately or unfortunately.
9. colloquialcountableuncountableA thing or whatsit (often used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one cannot recall).

   Pass me that little job with the screw thread on it.

   1 more example

   One of them was about nine years ago when I stood in white tie and tails beside a little blonde job (laughter and applause) down in front of the First Methodist Church of Birmingham, […]

   1936, Proceedings of the annual meeting of the American Warehousemen's Association, volume 45, page 376

   Synonyms: Sorted by number of Google hits, widget, hickey, gizmo, thingy, gimmick, thingie, jigger

10. UKslanguncountablegovernmentThe police as a profession, act of policing, or an individual police officer.

    “I’m job, DS Townsend. I have to report a missing person.”

    2022 February 9, Daragh Carville, Richard Clark, Furquan Akhtar, 01:33 from the start, in The Bay, season 3, episode 5, spoken by DS Jenn Townsend (Marsha Thomason)

    2 more examples

    “He was ex-job, Beavis. Detective sergeant out of County, Banbury, retired in ‘59.”

    2018 February 11, Colin Dexter, Russell Lewis, 14:17 from the start, in Endeavour(Cartouche), season 5, episode 2 (TV series), spoken by DS Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans)

    But there it was on the screen: The personal details of his old colleague from Kennington station in the late nineties.[…]She’s job. We used to work together.

    2018 July 24, Chris Merritt, Last Witness:A Gripping Crime Thriller You Won’t Be Able To Put Down

11. countableslanguncountablevulgarSynonym of penis.

    Synonyms: penis

present singular third person jobs · participle present jobbing · participle past jobbed · past jobbed · alternative j*b

1. intransitiveTo do odd jobs or occasional work for hire.

   Authors of all work, to job for the season.

   a. 1852, Thomas Moore, Literary Advertisement

2. intransitiveTo work as a jobber.
3. intransitiveslanggovernmentTo take the loss, usually in a demeaning or submissive manner.
4. transitivebusinessTo buy and sell for profit, as securities; to speculate in.
5. oftentransitiveTo subcontract a project or delivery in small portions to a number of contractors.

   We wanted to sell a turnkey plant, but they jobbed out the contract to small firms.

6. intransitiveTo seek private gain under pretence of public service; to turn public matters to private advantage.

   And judges job, and bishops bite the town.

   1733, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Bathurst

7. To hire or let in periods of service.

   to job a carriage

   1 more example

   […] ...and a pair of handsome horses were jobbed, with which Jos drove about in state in the park...

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

present singular third person jobs · participle present jobbing · participle past jobbed · past jobbed · alternative j*b

1. archaicintransitiveregionalTo peck (of a bird); (more generally) to poke or prod (at, into).First known use 15th c.

   a raven pitch'd upon him, and there sate, jobbing of the sore

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

2. transitiveTo pierce or poke (someone or something), typically with a sharp or pointed object; to stab.First known use 16th c.

   He had ‘jobbed out’ the eye of one gentleman.

   1844, Charles Dickens, chapter 33, in Martin Chuzzlewit

   Synonyms: jab, run through, chef, chib, ching, chive, enthrill, foin

3. AustraliatransitiveTo hit (someone) with a quick, sharp punch; to jab.First known use 19th c.

   A stranger jobbed me in the mug so hard that I fell off my chair.

   2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish, Vintage, published 2016, page 40

plural jobs · alternative j*b

1. obsoleteA sudden thrust or stab; a jab or punch.First known use 16th–20th c.

   Fair dinkum, a man ought to give you a job in the b— face.

   1937 October 14, The Western Mail, Perth

1. biblicalA book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
2. A male given name from Hebrew.
3. IslamA character in the Old Testament and the Qur'an, renowned for his patience.

   Synonyms: Ayub, Ayoub

plural Jobs

1. figurativelyA person who shows remarkable patience, especially in the face of great misfortune.