Verb. (old Scots’).—To copulate; also to sport. For synonyms see Greens
and Ride.
1715. Allan Ramsay, Christ’s Kirk, etc. ii. Wks. (1848), i. 324.
Was n’er in Scotland heard or seen Sic banquetting and drinkin’—Sic
revelling and battles keen, Sic dancing and sic jinkin’.
c. 1750. Robertson (of Struan), Poems, 86. Let pass, let pass, The
naughty Glass, And wisely fall a-jinking.
To jink one’s tin, verb. phr. (common).—To pay money; to ‘shell out’;
to rattle or flash (q.v.) one’s cash.
Jinker, subs. (venery).—A performer (q.v.).
1724–27. Ramsay, Clout the Caudron, in Wks. (at sup.), ii, 275. Yet
to yourself I’m bauld to tell, I am a gentle jinker.
Jinny, subs. (thieves’).—A geneva watch.
Jipper, subs. (nautical).—Gravy.
Jo. See joe.
Joan, subs. (old).—A fetter: specifically Darby and Joan = fetters
coupling two persons. See Darbies.
Homely Joan, subs. phr. (old).—A coarse, ordinary looking woman.—B. E.
(1690).
Joan in the Dark is as good as my lady, phr. (old).—A variant of ‘When
you cannot kiss the mistress kiss the maid’, or ‘When candles are out
all cats are grey’.—B. E. (1690); New Cant. Dict. (1725).
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie, in Works (1725), Bk iv. p. 81. The
Cave so darksome was that I do Think Joan had been as good as Dido.
Job, subs. (Old Cant: now colloquial).—1. Specifically, robbery;
generally, any unfair arrangement, or effect of nepotism: e.g. the
obtaining of an office, or a contract, by secret influence, or the
undertaking of a piece of business ostensibly for public but really for
private ends.
1667. Pepys, Diary, April 10. And for aught I see likely only to be
used as a jobb to do a kindness to some lord, or he that can get to
be governor. Ibid. 1665, Aug. 31. My late gettings have been very
great to my great content, and am likely to have yet a few more
profitable jobbs in a little while.
1711. Pope, Essays on Criticism, i. 104. No cheek is known to blush
or heart to throb, Save when they lose a question or a job.
1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, Pt. iii. App. ch. iii. Like an
old favourite of a cunning Minister after the job is over.
1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, iv. i. p. 54 (2nd ed.). But I
have another job for you; and if my stratagem takes there, my
fortune’s made.
1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i. 67. In our august
House of Parliament, the word Job is never made use of but to
express an action thoroughly base.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, xxxiii. ‘But, Hatteraick, this,—that
is, if it be true, which I do not believe,—this will ruin us both,
for he cannot but remember your neat job.’
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 10. C—nn—g Came in a job, and then
canter’d about On a showy, but hot and unsound, bit of blood.
1827. Todd, Johnson’s Dict., s.v. Job. A low word now much in use,
of which I cannot tell the etymology.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, iii. Who shall hold the first rank,
have the first prizes and chances in all government jobs and
patronages.
1859. Political Portraits, p. 219. His (Mr. Disraeli’s)
representation of the Reform Bill of 1832 as a Whig job is a
silliness.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Job. To do a job, to commit a
robbery.
1864. Thomas Hughes [in Spectator, 26 Nov.]. The present job (and a
very stiff one it is, though not in the Standard’s sense) was
offered to and accepted by me as a mere piece of conveyancing.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ii. 135. The third day after his
discharge he got drunk, joined some old associates, entered with
them into a job, and was captured ‘redhanded.’
1889. Star, 3 Dec, 1. 5. The whole thing was probably a put-up job.
1889. Daily Telegraph, 25 Jan. Jobs abounded and contracts were
corrupt.
2. (colloquial).—A piece of work; an occurrence, fortunate or
otherwise; a situation or place of employment. A bad job = an unlucky
occurrence, a misfortune, an unsuccessful attempt. Hence Jobber = one
who does piece or occasional work.
1658. Brome, New Academy, in Wks. (1873), ii. 97 (Act v. 2). He
confest receipt of fifty pounds my wife has lent him (false woman
that she is!) for horn-making, job journey-work.
1661. T. Middleton, Mayor of Quinborough, iv. 1. And yet not I
myself, I cannot read, I keep a clerk to do those jobs for need.
1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary. Job, a piece of labour, undertaken at
a stated price. Norf.
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).