From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
job
n 1: the principal activity in your life that you do to earn
money; "he's not in my line of business" [syn:
occupation, business, line of work, line]
2: a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or
for a specific fee; "estimates of the city's loss on that
job ranged as high as a million dollars"; "the job of
repairing the engine took several hours"; "the endless
task of classifying the samples"; "the farmer's morning
chores" [syn: task, chore]
3: the performance of a piece of work; "she did an outstanding
job as Ophelia"; "he gave it up as a bad job"
4: the responsibility to do something; "it is their job to
print the truth"
5: a workplace; as in the expression "on the job";
6: an object worked on; a result produced by working; "he held
the job in his left hand and worked on it with his right"
7: a state of difficulty that needs to be resolved; "she and
her husband are having problems"; "it is always a job to
contact him"; "urban problems such as traffic congestion
and smog" [syn: problem]
8: a damaging piece of work; "dry rot did the job of destroying
the barn"; "the barber did a real job on my hair"
9: a crime (especially a robbery); "the gang pulled off a bank
job in St. Louis" [syn: caper]
10: a Jewish hero in the Old Testament who maintained his faith
in God in spite of afflictions that tested him [syn:
Job]
11: any long-suffering person who withstands affliction without
despairing [syn: Job]
12: (computer science) a program application that may consist of
several steps but is a single logical unit
13: a book in the Old Testament containing Job's pleas to God
about his afflictions and God's reply [syn: Job, {Book
of Job}]
v 1: profit privately from public office and official business
2: arranged for contracted work to be done by others [syn:
subcontract, farm out]
3: work occasionally; "As a student I jobbed during the
semester breaks"
4: invest at a risk; "I bought this house not because I want to
live in it but to sell it later at a good price, so I am
speculating" [syn: speculate]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Job \Job\ (j[o^]b), 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.]
[1913 Webster]
1. A sudden thrust or stab; a jab.
[1913 Webster]
2. 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]
3. 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]
4. Any affair or event which affects one, whether fortunately
or unfortunately. [Colloq.]
[1913 Webster]
5. A situation or opportunity of work; as, he lost his job.
[Colloq.]
[1913 Webster]
6. A task, or the execution of a task; as, Michelangelo did a
great job on the David statue.
[PJC]
7. (Computers) 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]
Note: 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]
[1913 Webster +PJC]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Job \Job\ (j[o^]b), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Jobbed (j[o^]bd); p.
pr. & vb. n. Jobbing.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To strike or stab with a pointed instrument. --L'Estrange.
[1913 Webster]
2. To thrust in, as a pointed instrument. --Moxon.
[1913 Webster]
3. To do or cause to be done by separate portions or lots; to
sublet (work); as, to job a contract.
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4. (Com.) 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]
5. To hire or let by the job or for a period of service; as,
to job a carriage. --Thackeray.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Job \Job\, v. i.
1. 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. --Moore.
[1913 Webster]
2. 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. --Pope.
[1913 Webster]
3. To carry on the business of a jobber in merchandise or
stocks.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Job \Job\ (j[=o]b), 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.
[1913 Webster]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
job
<operating system> All the activities involved in completing
any project on a computer from start to finish. A job may
involve several processes and several programs.
This term is rather old fashioned and harks back to the days
of batch processing where a user would submit his job as a
deck of punched cards which would typically include {source
code} interspersed with job control language instructions to
guide the various phases of the job such as compilation,
linking, execution and printing.
(1995-05-07)