jobbing

jobbing

1. present participle and gerund of job

jobbing (plural jobbings)

1. Buying and selling stocks or goods for profit; mercenary trading. [from 17th c.]
2. The fact or practice of using a public office or other position of trust for personal gain. [from 17th c.]
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 197:

     It is through the power of Paris, now become the center and focus of jobbing, that the leaders of this faction direct, or rather command the whole legislative and the whole executive government.

3. Work carried out by the job; piecework, odd-job work. [from 18th c.]
   • 1849, The Lancet London:

     We have not lost sight of the various proceedings, appointments, jobbings, &c, at University College.

• job production

jobbing (comparative more jobbing, superlative most jobbing)

1. That does odd jobs; that works on occasional jobs as available. [from 18th c.]

   The jobbing foundryman has very little control over the nature of the jobs which come his way.

   • 2020 November 1, Alan Young, “Sean Connery obituary: From delivering milk in Fountainbridge to the definitive James Bond”, in The Scotsman‎:

     His performance in Dr No in 1962 set the jobbing actor and former milkman on a path that would lead to Hollywood stardom and all its trappings.