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 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.