1857. Lord Dufferin, Letters from High Latitudes, vii. Giving it up as a bad job.
1895. Henley & Stevenson, Macaire (New Review, June, 701) iii. 1. Blinding dark, and a good job.
3. (old).—A guinea: also Jobe.—B. E. (1690); New Cant. Dict. (1725); Grose (1785); Lex. Bal. (1811).
4. (American thieves').—As subs. = patience; as intj. = take time; 'don't be in a hurry!'—Matsell (1859).
5. (colloquial).—See Jab.
1827. Todd, Johnson's Dict., s.v. Job.
1885. Eng. Ill. Mag., April, 505. Some say that if a fish takes fairly, he will and must hook himself. Others that it requires a good job to drive the point of a large hook in beyond the barb.
6. (venery).—See By-job.
Verb. (colloquial).—1. To do work, or perform duties, ostensibly pro bono publico but in reality for one's private ends or advantage.
1781-35. Pope, Moral Essays, iii. 141. And judges job and bishops bite the town.
1833. Macaulay, Let. to Sister [in Life by Trevelyan, v. 241 (1884)]. We shall be suspected of jobbing if we proceed to extremities on behalf of one of ourselves.
1838. Lytton, Alice, iii. i. No jobbing was too gross for him. He was shamefully corrupt in the disposition of his patronage.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, iii. A man becomes enormously rich, or he jobs successfully in the aid of a Minister, or he wins a great battle . . . and the country rewards him for ever with a gold coronet.
2. (colloquial).—To thrust violently and suddenly; to prod; to jab (q.v.).
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. 37, st. 12, p. 89 (E. D. S.). Stick plentie of bows among runcinall pease to climber thereon, and to branch at their ease. So dooing, more tender and greater they wex, If peacock and turkey leaue iobbing their bex [See also note in E. D. Soc.'s ed. of Tusser's Husbandrie, p. 263].
1560. Sleidane Commentaries, Book x. fol. cxxx. Then caught he a boore speare out of a young mans hande that stode next him and as he laie jobbed him in with the staffe heade.
1692. L'Estrange, Esop [quoted in E. D. Soc.'s ed. of Tusser's Husbandrie s.v. Job]. As an ass with a galled back was feeding in a meadow, a raven pitched upon him, and there sate jobbing of the sore.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chizzlewit, xxxiii. p. 326. He . . . was greatly beloved for the gallant manner in which he had jobbed out the eye of one gentleman.
1852. Dickens, Our Bore, [in Reprinted Pieces, p. 298]. As if he were being stabbed—or, rather, jobbed—that expresses it more correctly—jobbed—with a blunt knife.
1883. Daily Telegraph, Jan. 11, p. 3. col. 7. There was a disturbance at his door early on Christmas morning, and on going out to see what was wrong the prisoner jobbed a lantern into his eye.
1891. Lic. Vict. Gaz., 17 Ap., 247. i. Following up his advantages, Jem jobbed his adversary terrifically in the face with the left till Giles was bathed in blood.
1892. Anstey, Voces Populi, 60. I'll job the 'helliphants ribs, and make 'im gallop, I will.
3. (colloquial).—To chide; to reprimand: also Jobe.
1685. Autobiography of Sir J. Bramston. The king had talked earnestly to the duke and jobed him soe that the teares stood in his eyes.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2nd ed. s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1794. Gent. Mag., p. 1085. I heard a lively young man assert that, in consequence of an intimation from the tutor relative to his irregularities, his own father came from the country to jobe him.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1837-40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker [ed. 1862] p. 471. I am as weak as a child, and can't stand Jobbing.
