Also 7–8 jobb. [Of obscure origin: prob. in colloquial use some time before it appeared in literature. Possibly connected with prec., sense 2.]
1. A piece of work; esp. a small definite piece of work done in the way of one’s special occupation or profession.
a. 1627. Middleton, Mayor Quinborough, IV. i. I cannot read, I keep a Clark to do those jobbs for need.
1688. New Jersey Archives (1881), II. 29. Old Smith I keep doeing jobs vp and down.
1721. Bailey, Jobb, a small piece of Work.
1726. Swift, Corr., Wks. 1841, II. 583/1. I am strongly tempted to send a parcel to be printed … and make a ninepenny job for the bookseller.
1798. Bloomfield, Farmer’s Boy, I. 56. He … never lack’d a job for Giles to do.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), II. xxxiv. Carpenter whom you have … entreated to come himself for the purpose of doing a variety of jobs.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Berkeley the Banker, I. v. 108. This, you see, was a pretty long job, and a profitable one, she says.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., iii. (1878), 36. Well, well, Rogers, Simmons shall have the job.
b. Thieves’ slang. A theft or robbery; any criminal deed, esp. one definitely arranged beforehand.
1722. De Foe, Moll Flanders (1840), 224. It was always reckoned a safe job when we heard of a new shop.
1800. W. B. Rhodes, Bomb. Fur., i. (1830), 11. I knocked him down, then snatch’d it from his fob, Watch, Watch, he cried, when I had done the job.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxiii. I thought the job was clayed over and forgotten.
1884. Public Opinion, 5 Sept., 301/1. He … found … stolen property sufficient to connect the thief with several ‘jobs.’
c. Printing. A small piece of work of the miscellaneous kind, as the printing of posters, handbills, cards, etc.
1800. in J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 578. That every article under one sheet be considered a job. Ibid. All jobs in foreign languages to be paid sevenpence halfpenny per thousand. Ibid. (1810), 582. Jobs of one sheet or under (except Auctioneers’ Catalogues and Particulars) to be cast up at sevenpence per thousand.
d. Phr. By the job.
1733. Berkeley, Lett. to Tom Prior, 1 May, in Fraser, Life (1871), 207. I do not design to hire one [gardener] … but only employ him by the job.
1792. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Odes Condol., Wks. 1812, III. 108. I thank my stars, I am not like the Mob Whom Nature fabricated by the job.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, xviii. 351. The teacher said he was paid by the job.
2. A piece of work, or transaction, done for hire, or with a special view to profit.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 2 June. I will do you all the good jobs I can.
1664. Evelyn, trans. Freart’s Archit., App. 119. Workmen, who from … some lucky jobb (as they call it) do generally ingrosse all the work they can hear of.
1727–38. Gay, Fables, II. xiii. Then marriage (as of late profest) Is but a money job at best.
1778. Fanatic Saints, 10.
| Their Faith’s a Dream, their Preaching but a Job, | |
| Their frantic Pray’r a mere Decoy for Mob. |
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., I. viii. 104. You see, Mr. Haley ’s a puttin’ us in a way of a good job, I reckon.
3. A public service or trust turned to private gain or party advantage; a transaction in which duty or the public interest is sacrificed for the sake of private or party advantage.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 10 April. It [Tangier] hath been hitherto … used as a jobb to do a kindness to some Lord.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., iii. Wks. 1755, V. II. 46. I never can suppose, that such patents … were originally granted with a view of being a jobb for the interest of a particular person to the damage of the publick.
1735. Pope, Donne Sat., iv. 142. Who makes a Trust or Charity a Job, And gets an Act of Parliament to rob.
1769. Junius Lett., vii. 31. It would have been more decent in you to have called this dishonourable transaction by its true name; a job, to accommodate two persons.
1807–8. Syd. Smith, Plymley’s Lett., x. (ed. 11), 171. If Ireland is gone, where are jobs? where are reversions?
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. lxxxvi. 153. Even when jobs are exposed by the press, each particular job seems below the attention of a busy people.
† b. Personal profit; private interest. Obs.
1661. Baxter, Moral Prognost., I. xcv. 24. Those dangerous Extreams, that seem to serve some present Exigence and Jobb.
1785. Burke, Sp. Nabob Arcot, Wks. IV. 275. Territories, on the keeping of which … the defence of our dominions, and, what was more dear to them, possibly, their own job, depended.
4. Anything one has to do; a ‘business,’ affair, operation, transaction, matter to be done.
1694. R. L’Estrange, Fables, cccxxxii. (ed. 6), 345. A Widow … had a Twittering towards a second husband: and she took a Gossiping Companion of hers to her Assistance, how to Manage the Jobb.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, ii. I’ve had a hard job to find my way back.
1879. Browning, Martin Relph, xvii. ’Tis an ugly job: but soldiers obey commands.
1889. R. S. S. Baden-Powell, Pigsticking, 49. To drive them out is naturally a very difficult job. Ibid., 80. I was carried into camp and my wounds sewn up and dressed, a job which took nearly four hours!
b. Phr. To do the job for, or to do (a person’s) job: (a) to do what is required by him; (b) slang, to ‘do for,’ ruin, destroy. To make a job of: to transact or manage successfully. Bad job: a thing on which labor is spent in vain, a failure (see also 5 below).
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xli. (1737), 165. The Sausage’s Job being done.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. xviii. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there,… they had done the job for us.
1855. Motley, Corr. (1889), I. vi. 172. I should not like him to read it till he can do it all at once, and make a job of it.
1865. H. Kingsley, Hillyars & Burtons, lxix. He had given up religion as a bad job.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. ix. Bella … heaved a little sigh, and gave up things in general for a bad job.
5. An ‘affair,’ ‘business,’ occurrence, state of things: esp. in good job, bad job, a fortunate or unfortunate event, fact, or condition of affairs.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Badjob, an ill bout, bargain, or business.
1802. Stephenson, in Naval Chron., VII. 49. It would be a bad job.
1859. J. Lang, Wand. India, 404. ‘We are, unfortunately, very much in debt.’
‘That’s a bad job,’ said my Lord.
1876. W. S. Gilbert, Trial by Jury, ad fin. So we’ve finished with the job, And a good job too!
1886. Fenn, Master Cerem., vii. It is a jolly good job the old woman is dead.
1888. J. Payn, Myst. Mirbridge (Tauchn.), II. xxvii. 281. She would make the best of a bad job.
† 6. Short for job-carriage, job-horse: see 7. Obs.
1808. Sporting Mag., XXXI. 10. It happens … that the horses are only Jobs.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 10. C—nn—g came in a job.
1863. Sat. Rev., 361. Those jobs which the Most Noble Master of the Horse thought fit to harness to the shabby landau which held the future King and Queen of England.
7. attrib. and Comb. Hired or used, not in the way of constant employment, but by the job or particular piece of work, or for a limited time; as job-carriage, -coach, -coachman, -doctor, -gardener, -horse. Also job book (see quot.); job-broking, dealing in jobs; job lot, a lot or parcel of goods, of sundry kinds or qualities, bought as a speculation with a view to profit; hence applied depreciatively to any miscellaneous lot of things, persons, etc.; job note (see quot.); job-office (Printing), an office at which only job-work is done (see 1 c); so job-printer; also job-type, type (of a special or ornamental kind) used in job-work; job-price, (a) a price paid for things hired or work done by the job; (b) a price paid for things bought as a job lot; job watch (Naut.) = hack-watch, HACK sb.3 6; job-work, work done and paid for by the job; piece-work.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 487. By means of a *Job Book, an Employer or Overseer will be enabled … to discover not only every charge that had been made upon a Job, but also for whom, the number printed, and the size and description, together with the full charge.
1701. De Foe, Freeholder’s Plea, in Misc. (1703), 178. That the Scandalous Mechanick Upstart Mistery of *job-broking should thus grow upon the Nation.
1805. Naval Chron., XIII. 183. The horses to be put to the *job carriage which he used.
1827. Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 461. Some were in *job-coaches, at two guineas a-day.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, iii. 9. He condescended to take a place as *job coachman in a livery-stable.
1835. Court Mag., VI. 207/1. A *job-doctor, or one whose engagement is likely to terminate with a particular service.
1883. ‘Annie Thomas,’ Mod. Housewife, 30. Contenting ourselves with the services of a *‘job gardener’ … whose crops were always late and poor.
1790. H. M. Williams, Julia, II. xxii. 51. You had *job horses.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxxiv. The sight of Dr. Slocum’s large carriage, with the gaunt job-horses, crushed Flora.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 272/1. Some few of them [pocket-books] may, however, have been damaged, and these are bought by the street-people as a *‘job lot,’ and at a lower price.
1864. Reader, 3 Dec., 707/3. Called ‘job lots,’ because the articles included in them are not resold in the state in which they were purchased, but jobbed away, or, in other words, sold to different customers, as opportunity may offer.
1879. Print. Trades Jrnl., No. 26. 16. Job lots of paper and job lots of leather and sometimes old covers.
1891. Law Times, XC. 395/1. Defendant … saw two cows belonging to Kidd among a job lot of cattle.
1803. in Naval Chron., XV. 58. What is the nature of a *job note? It is … an actual statement of the work performed by job and task, with the prices of the labour set against each article.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 12. Mr. Buckram’s *job price, we should say, was as near twelve pounds a month,… as he could screw, the hirer, of course, keeping the animals.
1886. Daily News, 26 July, 2/5. Home buyers … not infrequently supply their wants from accumulated stocks at ‘job’ prices.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Job-watch, or Hack-watch, for taking astronomical sights, which saves taking the chronometer on deck or on shore to note the time.
1803. R. Pering, in Naval Chron., XV. 58. I conceive … *job work [in royal dockyards] to consist in pulling to pieces and repairing.
1887. Jessopp, Arcady, vi. 176. Once or twice I had come upon him doing job-work for the small employers.
