job
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dʒɒb/
ipa: /dʒɑb/
rhymes: -ɒb
Forms: form: jobs
form: j*b
Etymology: From the phrase jobbe of work (“piece of work”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a variant of Middle English gobbe (“mass, lump”); or perhaps related to Middle English jobben (“to jab, thrust, peck”), or Middle English choppe (“piece, bargain”). More at gob, jab, chop.
Senses: examples: text: I've got a job for you: could you wash the dishes?
text: And it's my job to take care of the skanks on the road that you bang.
ref: 1996, Cameron Crowe, Jerry Maguire:
glosses: A task.
examples: text: That surgeon has a great job.
text: He's been out of a job since being made redundant in January.
text: I was looking for a job and then I found a job / And heaven knows I'm miserable now
ref: 1984, Johnny Marr & Morrissey, “Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now”, in Hatful of Hollow, performed by The Smiths:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
text: Here I am at my new job!
ref: 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
glosses: An economic role for which a person is paid.
examples: text: He had a nose job.
glosses: Plastic surgery.
raw_tags: in noun compounds
examples: text: hand job
text: 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.
ref: 2000 August 6, “Easy Come, Easy Go”, in Sex and the City, season 3, episode 9, spoken by Samantha:
glosses: A sex act.
raw_tags: in noun compounds
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A task, or series of tasks, carried out in batch mode (especially on a mainframe computer).
glosses: A public transaction done for private profit; something performed ostensibly as a part of official duty, but really for private gain; a corrupt official business.
examples: text: a bank job
text: 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!
ref: 2010, J. Lamar, Honor, Deception and Justice, page 53:
glosses: A robbery or heist.
glosses: Any affair or event which affects one, whether fortunately or unfortunately.
examples: text: Pass me that little job with the screw thread on it.
text: 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, […]
ref: 1936, Proceedings of the annual meeting of the American Warehousemen's Association, volume 45, page 376:
synonyms: word: Sorted by number of Google hits
word: widget
word: hickey
word: gizmo
word: thingy
word: gimmick
word: thingie
word: jigger
word: gismo
word: gubbins
word: whatsit
word: thingamajig
word: doodad
word: whatchamacallit
word: doohickey
word: thingo
word: thingamabob
word: thingummy
word: whatsis
word: thingumajig
word: thingumabob
word: whatchacallit
word: Sorted alphabetically
word: affair
word: bazinga
word: bizzo
word: dealie
word: dealy
word: dinglehopper
word: dingus
word: dohickey
word: dojigger
word: dongle
word: doo-hickey
word: doober
word: doodah
word: doofer
word: doohickus
word: doohinkey
word: doohinkus
word: doojigger
word: doovalacky
word: foobar
word: foo
word: frammis
word: frobnitz
word: gadget
word: geegaw
word: gewgaw
word: gingambob
word: gingumbob
word: hodad
word: hootenanny
word: jawn
word: jimbang
word: jobber
word: jobby
word: joint
word: junk
word: kajigger
word: kludge
word: MacGuffin
word: oojamaflip
word: rigamajig
word: shebang
word: stuff
word: thingabob
word: thingamabobber
word: thingamafuck
word: thingamajigger
word: thingamajiggy
word: thingmabob
word: thingmajig
word: thingmy
word: thingummabob
word: thingummajig
word: thingummyjig
word: thingum
word: thingymabob
word: thingymajig
word: thing
word: ting
word: whachacallit
word: whachamacallit
word: whaddayacallit
word: whatchamahoozie
word: whatdyecallem
word: whatdoyoucallit
word: whatnot
word: whatsaname
word: whatsitsname
word: whiff-whaff
word: whosiewhatsit
word: whosit
word: wossisname
word: wossname
word: wotsit
word: yoke
word: yokibus
glosses: A thing or whatsit (often used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one cannot recall).
examples: text: “He was ex-job, Beavis. Detective sergeant out of County, Banbury, retired in ‘59.”
ref: 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):
text: 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.
ref: 2018 July 24, Chris Merritt, Last Witness:A Gripping Crime Thriller You Won’t Be Able To Put Down:
text: “I’m job, D.S Townsend. I have to report a missing person.”
ref: 2022 February 9, Daragh Carville, Richard Clark, Furquan Akhtar, 01:33 from the start, in The Bay, season 3, episode 5, spoken by D.S Jenn Townsend (Marsha Thomason):
topics: government
law-enforcement
glosses: The police as a profession, act of policing, or an individual police officer.
glosses: A penis.