"odd job" meaning in English

See odd job in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: odd jobs [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} odd job (plural odd jobs)
  1. Temporary employment.
    Sense id: en-odd_job-en-noun-4qPOIxgm Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 32 34 35
  2. Task of an incidental, unspecialized nature.
    Sense id: en-odd_job-en-noun-WXmJ3yG4 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 32 34 35

Verb

Forms: odd jobs [present, singular, third-person], odd jobbing [participle, present], odd jobbed [participle, past], odd jobbed [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|++}} odd job (third-person singular simple present odd jobs, present participle odd jobbing, simple past and past participle odd jobbed)
  1. Alternative form of odd-job Tags: alt-of, alternative Alternative form of: odd-job Translations (task of incidental nature): hanttihomma (Finnish), hanttityö (Finnish), aputyö (Finnish), Gelegenheitsarbeit [feminine] (German), småjobb [masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål), småjobb [masculine] (Norwegian Nynorsk), biscate [masculine] (Portuguese), случа́йная рабо́та (slučájnaja rabóta) [feminine] (Russian) Translations (temporary job): 臨時工 (Chinese Mandarin), 临时工 (línshígōng) (Chinese Mandarin), pätkätyö (Finnish), silpputyö (Finnish), petit boulot [masculine] (French), Zeitarbeit [feminine] (German), lavoro occasionale [masculine] (Italian), bico [masculine] (Portuguese), вре́менная рабо́та (vrémennaja rabóta) [feminine] (Russian), chapuza [feminine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-odd_job-en-verb-HdAXqNgM Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 32 34 35

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for odd job meaning in English (6.6kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "odd jobs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "odd job (plural odd jobs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "32 34 35",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Sam Staggs, Close-up on Sunset Boulevard",
          "text": "They believe that when a partnership works as well as theirs has, you shouldn't analyze it too much. Success came in the midforties when Paramount hired them for the musical equivalent of odd jobs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Frank J. Landy, Employment Discrimination Litigation",
          "text": "On the other hand, if the decedent wanted to be a veterinarian but had never worked full time, worked odd jobs, had an English degree, and had worked as a receptionist at the veterinarian's office, it might be different.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, S. D Murdoch, Into the Field",
          "text": "Most of the usual things that average people sought seem to come his way anyway, for example, money when he needed it, where he'd take an odd job until he earned enough to get by for a while and then he'd hit the road again.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Temporary employment."
      ],
      "id": "en-odd_job-en-noun-4qPOIxgm",
      "links": [
        [
          "Temporary",
          "temporary"
        ],
        [
          "employment",
          "employment"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "32 34 35",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I like doing odd jobs around the house."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1910, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 1, in The Intrusion of Jimmy",
          "text": "He moved all over the States, without a cent, picking up any odd job he could get.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Malcolm Stevens, Evan's War, page 205",
          "text": "For the next two weeks I bided my time, sleeping at night on an army-issue metal cot in a small, bare room separate from the other men; working during the day at whatever odd job the duty officer saw fit to hand out.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Task of an incidental, unspecialized nature."
      ],
      "id": "en-odd_job-en-noun-WXmJ3yG4",
      "links": [
        [
          "Task",
          "task"
        ],
        [
          "incidental",
          "incidental"
        ],
        [
          "unspecialized",
          "unspecialized"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "odd job"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "odd jobs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "odd jobbing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "odd jobbed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "odd jobbed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "++"
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      "expansion": "odd job (third-person singular simple present odd jobs, present participle odd jobbing, simple past and past participle odd jobbed)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "odd-job"
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      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "32 34 35",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities",
          "text": "\"I hope, sir,\" pleaded the abashed Mr. Cruncher, \"that a gentleman like yourself wot I've had the honour of odd jobbing till I'm grey at it, would think twice about harming of me, even if it wos so—I don't say it is, but even if it wos.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988, Zita Dresner, Redressing the balance, page 295",
          "text": "The Kettles recommended Peter Moses, a little, old, apple-cheeked man who \"odd jobbed\" and claimed to be the most patriotic man in the \"Yewnited States of America.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Abigail R. Gehring, Odd Jobs: How to Have Fun and Make Money in a Bad Economy",
          "text": "Now, as I adjust to my first-ever nine-to-five office job (an experience not unlike culture shock, after years of “odd jobbing” to pay the rent), I find myself still answering calls to cater a wedding, henna tattoo adolescent girls at a bat mitzvah, or be a beer promo girl for a night.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, Evelyn Guevara Lohmann, Spies-C.I.A-Lies-Terrorist-Che Guevara",
          "text": "They all odd jobbed in and around London, some were looking after children in Norway and other places or jobbed in restaurants, shops.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of odd-job"
      ],
      "id": "en-odd_job-en-verb-HdAXqNgM",
      "links": [
        [
          "odd-job",
          "odd-job#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "word": "臨時工"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "línshígōng",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "word": "临时工"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "word": "pätkätyö"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "word": "silpputyö"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "petit boulot"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Zeitarbeit"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "lavoro occasionale"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "bico"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "vrémennaja rabóta",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "вре́менная рабо́та"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "temporary job",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "chapuza"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "task of incidental nature",
          "word": "hanttihomma"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "task of incidental nature",
          "word": "hanttityö"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "task of incidental nature",
          "word": "aputyö"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "task of incidental nature",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Gelegenheitsarbeit"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "task of incidental nature",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "småjobb"
        },
        {
          "code": "nn",
          "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
          "sense": "task of incidental nature",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "småjobb"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "task of incidental nature",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "biscate"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "slučájnaja rabóta",
          "sense": "task of incidental nature",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "случа́йная рабо́та"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "odd job"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "odd jobs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "odd job (plural odd jobs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Sam Staggs, Close-up on Sunset Boulevard",
          "text": "They believe that when a partnership works as well as theirs has, you shouldn't analyze it too much. Success came in the midforties when Paramount hired them for the musical equivalent of odd jobs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Frank J. Landy, Employment Discrimination Litigation",
          "text": "On the other hand, if the decedent wanted to be a veterinarian but had never worked full time, worked odd jobs, had an English degree, and had worked as a receptionist at the veterinarian's office, it might be different.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, S. D Murdoch, Into the Field",
          "text": "Most of the usual things that average people sought seem to come his way anyway, for example, money when he needed it, where he'd take an odd job until he earned enough to get by for a while and then he'd hit the road again.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Temporary employment."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Temporary",
          "temporary"
        ],
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          "employment",
          "employment"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I like doing odd jobs around the house."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1910, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 1, in The Intrusion of Jimmy",
          "text": "He moved all over the States, without a cent, picking up any odd job he could get.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Malcolm Stevens, Evan's War, page 205",
          "text": "For the next two weeks I bided my time, sleeping at night on an army-issue metal cot in a small, bare room separate from the other men; working during the day at whatever odd job the duty officer saw fit to hand out.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Task of an incidental, unspecialized nature."
      ],
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        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "odd job"
}

{
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English verbs"
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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "odd jobs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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      "form": "odd jobbing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "odd jobbed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "odd jobbed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "++"
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      "expansion": "odd job (third-person singular simple present odd jobs, present participle odd jobbing, simple past and past participle odd jobbed)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "odd-job"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities",
          "text": "\"I hope, sir,\" pleaded the abashed Mr. Cruncher, \"that a gentleman like yourself wot I've had the honour of odd jobbing till I'm grey at it, would think twice about harming of me, even if it wos so—I don't say it is, but even if it wos.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988, Zita Dresner, Redressing the balance, page 295",
          "text": "The Kettles recommended Peter Moses, a little, old, apple-cheeked man who \"odd jobbed\" and claimed to be the most patriotic man in the \"Yewnited States of America.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Abigail R. Gehring, Odd Jobs: How to Have Fun and Make Money in a Bad Economy",
          "text": "Now, as I adjust to my first-ever nine-to-five office job (an experience not unlike culture shock, after years of “odd jobbing” to pay the rent), I find myself still answering calls to cater a wedding, henna tattoo adolescent girls at a bat mitzvah, or be a beer promo girl for a night.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, Evelyn Guevara Lohmann, Spies-C.I.A-Lies-Terrorist-Che Guevara",
          "text": "They all odd jobbed in and around London, some were looking after children in Norway and other places or jobbed in restaurants, shops.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of odd-job"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "odd-job",
          "odd-job#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "word": "臨時工"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "línshígōng",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "word": "临时工"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "word": "pätkätyö"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "word": "silpputyö"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "petit boulot"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Zeitarbeit"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "lavoro occasionale"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "bico"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "vrémennaja rabóta",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "вре́менная рабо́та"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "temporary job",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "chapuza"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "task of incidental nature",
      "word": "hanttihomma"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "task of incidental nature",
      "word": "hanttityö"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "task of incidental nature",
      "word": "aputyö"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "task of incidental nature",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Gelegenheitsarbeit"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "task of incidental nature",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "småjobb"
    },
    {
      "code": "nn",
      "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
      "sense": "task of incidental nature",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "småjobb"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "task of incidental nature",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "biscate"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "slučájnaja rabóta",
      "sense": "task of incidental nature",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "случа́йная рабо́та"
    }
  ],
  "word": "odd job"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.