Job

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Job, n. [Prov. E. job, gob, n., a small piece of wood, v., to stab, strike; cf. E. gob, gobbet; perh. influenced by E. chop to cut off, to mince. See Gob.].

•  A sudden thrust or stab; a jab.  [1913 Webster]
•  A piece of chance or occasional work; any definite work undertaken in gross for a fixed price; as, he did the job for a thousand dollars.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any affair or event which affects one, whether fortunately or unfortunately.  [1913 Webster]
•  A situation or opportunity of work; as, he lost his job.  [1913 Webster]
•  A task, or the execution of a task; as, Michelangelo did a great job on the David statue.  [PJC]
•  A task or coordinated set of tasks for a multitasking computer, submitted for processing as a single unit, usually for execution in background. See job control language.  [PJC]

  " Job is used adjectively to signify doing jobs, used for jobs, or let on hire to do jobs; as, job printer; job master; job horse; job wagon, etc."  [1913 Webster]

By the job, at a stipulated sum for the work, or for each piece of work done; -- distinguished from time work; as, the house was built by the job. -- Job lot, a quantity of goods, usually miscellaneous, sold out of the regular course of trade, at a certain price for the whole; as, these articles were included in a job lot. -- Job master, one who lest out horses and carriages for hire, as for family use. [Eng.] -- Job printer, one who does miscellaneous printing, esp. circulars, cards, billheads, etc. -- Odd job, miscellaneous work of a petty kind; occasional work, of various kinds, or for various people. -- to do a job on, to harm badly or destroy. [slang] -- on the job, alert; performing a responsibility well. [slang]

Job, v. t. 

•  To strike or stab with a pointed instrument.  L'Estrange.  [1913 Webster]
•  To thrust in, as a pointed instrument.  Moxon.  [1913 Webster]
•  To do or cause to be done by separate portions or lots; to sublet (work); as, to job a contract.  [1913 Webster]
•  To buy and sell, as a broker; to purchase of importers or manufacturers for the purpose of selling to retailers; as, to job goods.  [1913 Webster]
•  To hire or let by the job or for a period of service; as, to job a carriage.  Thackeray.  [1913 Webster]

Job, v. i. 

•  To do chance work for hire; to work by the piece; to do petty work.  [1913 Webster]

  "Authors of all work, to job for the season."  [1913 Webster]
•  To seek private gain under pretense of public service; to turn public matters to private advantage.  [1913 Webster]

  "And judges job, and bishops bite the town."  [1913 Webster]
•  To carry on the business of a jobber in merchandise or stocks.  [1913 Webster]

Job, n. 

 The hero of the book of that name in the Old Testament; the prototypical patient man.  [1913 Webster]

Job's comforter. (a) A false friend; a tactless or malicious person who, under pretense of sympathy, insinuates rebukes. (b) A boil. [Colloq.] -- Job's news, bad news. Carlyle. -- Job's tears (Bot.), a kind of grass (Coix Lacryma), with hard, shining, pearly grains.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Job, n. & v.
--n.
1 a piece of work, esp. one done for hire or profit.
2 a paid position of employment.
3 colloq. anything one has to do.
4 colloq. a difficult task (had a job to find them).
5 a product of work, esp. if well done.
6 Computing an item of work regarded separately.
7 sl. a crime, esp. a robbery.
8 a transaction in which private advantage prevails over duty or public interest.
9 a state of affairs or set of circumstances (is a bad job).
--v. (jobbed, jobbing)
1 intr. do jobs; do piece-work.
2 a intr. deal in stocks. b tr. buy and sell (stocks or goods) as a middleman.
3 a intr. turn a position of trust to private advantage. b tr. deal corruptly with (a matter).
4 tr. US sl. swindle.

Idiom

job-control language Computing a language enabling the user to determine the tasks to be undertaken by the operating system. job-hunt colloq. seek employment. job lot a miscellaneous group of articles, esp. bought together. jobs for the boys colloq. profitable situations etc. to reward one's supporters. job-sharing an arrangement by which a full-time job is done jointly by several part-time employees who share the remuneration. just the job colloq. exactly what is wanted. make a job (or good job) of do thoroughly or successfully. on the job colloq.
1 at work; in the course of doing a piece of work.
2 engaged in sexual intercourse. out of a job unemployed.

Job, v. & n.
--v. (jobbed, jobbing)
1 tr. prod; stab slightly.
2 intr. (foll. by at) thrust.
--n. a prod or thrust; a jerk at a horse's bit.

Etymology

ME, app. imit.: cf. JAB

THESAURUS

Job

accomplished fact, accomplishment, achievement, act, acta, action, adventure, affair, appointment, assignment, bamboozle, be in, befool, berth, billet, blow, burglary, business, busywork, calling, capacity, caper, carry, character, chare, charge, charter, chicane, chore, close out, commission, concern, concernment, connection, convert into cash, coup, cut under, deal in, dealings, deed, devoir, doing, doings, dump, duty, effect a sale, effort, employment, endeavor, engagement, enterprise, errand, exercise, exploit, fait accompli, farm, farm out, feat, filch, fish to fry, flimflam, fool, function, gest, gig, go, grab, gull, hand, handiwork, handle, heist, hire, hire out, hoax, homework, incumbency, interest, job of work, labor, lease, lease out, lease-back, lease-lend, lend-lease, let, let off, let out, lift, line, make a sale, make-work, maneuver, market, matter, matters in hand, measure, merchandise, mission, moonlighting, move, niche, occupation, odd job, office, opening, operation, overt act, part, passage, performance, piece of work, pigeon, pinch, place, position, post, posting, proceeding, production, profession, project, province, pursuit, racket, rent, rent out, res gestae, resell, retail, rip-off, robbery, role, sacrifice, second job, sell, sell off, sell on consignment, sell out, sell over, sell retail, sell short, sell up, sell wholesale, service, situation, slot, spot, station, steal, step, stint, stroke, stunt, sublease, sublet, task, tenure, theft, thing, thing done, things to do, tour de force, trade, trade in, traffic in, transaction, turn, turn into money, turn over, undercut, underlet, undersell, undertaking, unload, vacancy, victimize, vocation, wholesale, work, works

ROGET THESAURUS

Job

Business

N business, occupation, employment, pursuit, what one is doing, what one is about, affair, concern, matter, case, matter in hand, irons in the fire, thing to do, agendum, task, work, job, chore, errand, commission, mission, charge, care, duty, part, role, cue, province, function, lookout, department, capacity, sphere, orb, field, line, walk, walk of life, beat, round, routine, race, career, office, place, post, chargeship, incumbency, living, situation, berth, employ, service, engagement, undertaking, vocation, calling, profession, cloth, faculty, industry, art, industrial arts, craft, mystery, handicraft, trade, exercise, work, avocation, press of business, businesslike, workaday, professional, official, functional, busy, on hand, in hand, in one's hands, afoot, on foot, on the anvil, going on, acting, in the course of business, all in one's day's work, professionally Adj, a business with an income at its heels, amoto quaeramus seria ludo, par negotiis neque supra.

Action

N action, performance, doing perpetration, exercise, excitation, movement, operation, evolution, work, labor, praxis, execution, procedure, handicraft, business, agency, deed, act, overt act, stitch, touch, gest transaction, job, doings, dealings, proceeding, measure, step, maneuver, bout, passage, move, stroke, blow, coup, coup de main, coup d'etat, tour de force, feat, exploit, achievement, handiwork, workmanship, manufacture, stroke of policy, actor, doing, acting, in action, in harness, on duty, in operation, in the act, in the midst of, in the thick of, red-handed, in flagrante delicto, while one's hand is in, action is eloquence, actions speak louder than words, actum aiunt ne agas, awake, arise, or be forever fall'n, dii pia facta vident, faire sans dire, fare fac, fronte capillata post est occasio calva, our deeds are sometimes better than our thoughts, the great end of life is not knowledge but action, thought is the soul of act, vivre-ce nest pas respirer c'est agir, we live in deeds not years.

Improbity

N improbity, dishonesty, dishonor, deviation from rectitude, disgrace, fraud, lying, bad faith, Punic faith, mala fides, Punica fides, infidelity, faithlessness, Judas kiss, betrayal, breach of promise, breach of trust, breach of faith, prodition, disloyalty, treason, high treason, apostasy, nonobservance, shabbiness, villainy, villany, baseness, abjection, debasement, turpitude, moral turpitude, laxity, trimming, shuffling, perfidy, perfidiousness, treachery, double dealing, unfairness, knavery, roguery, rascality, foul play, jobbing, jobbery, graft, bribery, venality, nepotism, corruption, job, shuffle, fishy transaction, barratry, sharp practice, heads I win tails you lose, mouth honor, dishonest, dishonorable, unconscientious, unscrupulous, fraudulent, knavish, disgraceful, wicked, false-hearted, disingenuous, unfair, one-sided, double, double- hearted, double-tongued, double-faced, timeserving, crooked, tortuous, insidious, Machiavelian, dark, slippery, fishy, perfidious, treacherous, perjured, infamous, arrant, foul, base, vile, ignominious, blackguard, contemptible, unrespectable, abject, mean, shabby, little, paltry, dirty, scurvy, scabby, sneaking, groveling, scrubby, rascally, pettifogging, beneath one, low-minded, low-thoughted, base-minded, undignified, indign, unbecoming, unbeseeming, unbefitting, derogatory, degrading, infra dignitatem, beneath one's dignity, ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike, unknightly, unchivalric, unmanly, unhandsome, recreant, inglorious, corrupt, venal, debased, mongrel, faithless, of bad faith, false, unfaithful, disloyal, untrustworthy, trustless, trothless, lost to shame, dead to honor, barratrous, dishonestly, mala fide, like a thief in the night, by crooked paths, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, corruptissima respublica plurimae leges.