[f. JOB v.2 + -ING1.] The action of JOB v.2
1. The doing of jobs or small pieces of work.
1800. D. Corpor. Acc., in Tomlinson, Doncaster (1887), 255. For sundries as per jobbing bill.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. x. 105. Able to do much useful jobbing.
1861. Bookseller, 26 Oct. Advt., The Founts of Type are … adapted for … every description of First-class Jobbing and Bookwork.
2. The buying of goods or stock from one person and selling to another in order to profit; the practice of a middleman or stock-jobber. (See also STOCK-JOBBING.)
1735. Bolingbroke, Lett. Hist., ii. (1752), 39. Amassing immense estates by the management of funds, by trafficking in paper, and by all the arts of jobbing.
1754. Ess. Manning Fleet, 34. Regulations … to prevent … the Monopoly of Tickets, and the … jobbing of them.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 170. The jobbing of the public funds?
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 174. Forced to an undue price by the arts of jobbing.
3. The action of using a public office or service for private gain or party advantage; the perpetration of corrupt jobs; jobbery.
1784. J. Barry, in Lect. Paint., iv. (1848), 166. The influence and jobbing by which the doing of them is obtained.
1838. Lytton, Alice, III. i. No jobbing was too gross for him. He was shamefully corrupt in the disposition of his patronage.
1861. May, Const. Hist., I. vi. 322. The costly … contracts, which this system of Parliamentary jobbing encouraged.
4. attrib.
1775. T. Mortimer, Ev. Man his own Broker, 14. Rash engagements in jobbing contracts.
1873. J. Richards, Wood-working Factories, 144. A planing, moulding, and general jobbing machine.
1889. Daily News, 6 Dec., 3/1. Out of this post-horse system … has grown this jobbing system, which is revolutionizing the customs of all who ‘keep their gig.’
