Job Meaning
/dʒɒb/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA task.
nounAn economic role for which a person is paid.
Sentence Examples
I like my job very much.
You finally succeeded in getting a job.
I don't have a job at present.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He applied for a new ____ at the hospital because he needed more money.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
After months of searching, he finally found a new ____ as a software engineer at a local company.
Word Origin & History
From the phrase jobbe of work (“piece of work”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a variant of Middle English gobbe (“mass, lump”); or perhaps related to Middle English jobben (“to jab, thrust, peck”), or Middle English choppe (“piece, bargain”). More at gob, jab, chop.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"And it's my job to take care of the skanks on the road that you bang."
— 1996, Cameron Crowe, Jerry Maguire:
"I was looking for a job and then I found a job / And heaven knows I'm miserable now"
— 1984, Johnny Marr & Morrissey, “Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now”, in Hatful of Hollow, performed by The Smiths:
"Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector."
— 2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
"You men have no idea what we're dealing with down there. Teeth placement, and jaw stress, and suction, and gag reflex, and all the while bobbing up and down, moaning and trying to breathe through our noses. Easy? Honey, they don't call it a job for nothing."
— 2000 August 6, “Easy Come, Easy Go”, in Sex and the City, season 3, episode 9, spoken by Samantha:
"This freak Vernon got the intelligence on the safe job and passed it on to some other freak, a guy that hears voices in his head and talks back to them. […] We don't think [Vernon's squeeze] is in on the heist, but she apparently is in love with this creep who is laying the pipe in her trough!"
— 2010, J. Lamar, Honor, Deception and Justice, page 53:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
He applied for a new ____ at the hospital because he needed more money.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
After months of searching, he finally found a new ____ as a software engineer at a local company.