Verb. (colloquial).—1. To do work, or perform duties, ostensibly pro
bono publico but in reality for one’s private ends or advantage.
1731–35. 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 Chuzzlewit, 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.