Meaning of Gig | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A frivolous, playful, or wanton young woman; a giglet or giglot.
   informal, obsolete
2. Synonym of fishgig or fizgig (“a spear with a barb on the end of it, used for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals”).
   informal
3. Originally (music), a performing engagement by a musician or musical group; (by extension, film, television, theater) a job or role for a performer.
   informal
4. Clipping of gigabyte (“one billion (1,000,000,000) bytes”).
   abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal
5. A top which is made to spin by tying a piece of string around it and then throwing it so that the string unwinds rapidly; a whipping-top.
   informal, obsolete
6. A person with an odd appearance; also, a foolish person.
   British, archaic, dialectal, informal
7. Any job, especially one that is freelance or temporary, or done on an on-demand basis.
   broadly, informal
8. Any unit of measurement having the SI prefix giga-.
   informal, slang
9. Senses relating to enjoyment.
   British, archaic, dialectal, informal, slang
10. Fun; frolics.
    British, archaic, dialectal, informal, slang
11. A demerit received for some infraction of a military deportment or dress code.
    US, informal
12. A fanciful impulse; a whim; also, a joke.
    informal, obsolete
13. Senses relating to vehicles.
    informal
14. A small, narrow, open boat carried in a larger ship, and used for transportation between the ship and the shore, another vessel, etc.
    informal
15. A similar rowing boat or sailboat, especially one used for racing; specifically, a six-oared sea rowing boat commonly found in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
    Southern-England, broadly, informal
16. A two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse.
    historical, informal

Equivalents

Examples

“I caught one of the Rolling Stones’ first gigs in Richmond.”

“Hey, when are we gonna get⟳ that hotel gig again?”

“I had this gig as a file⟳ clerk but it wasn’t my style so I left.”

“That guy’s got a great gig over at the bike shop⟳. He hardly works all day.”

“Whether you want⟳ to have⟳ some occasional translation gigs or turn⟳ freelance translating into your fulltime occupation, you'll need⟳ to know⟳ some essential things […]”

“In recent decades, "gig" has become⟳ just a hip term for any temporary job or stint, with the implication you're not particularly invested in it. I think⟳ of the barista or bookstore clerk who responds to my questions with a look⟳ that says, "Hey, man, it's a gig. I don't really DO this?" That tone of insouciance has made "the gig economy" the predominant name⟳ for what's being touted as the industrial revolution of our times.”

“I received gigs for having buttons of my uniform undone.”

“This picture is almost a gig; don’t you want⟳ to resize it?”

“My new computer has over 500 gigs of hard drive⟳ space.”

“The restore⟳ would get⟳ through between 13 and 20 gigs of data, and then the tape would fail⟳.”

“Peda[nt]. Thou diſputes like⟳ an Infant: goe vvhip thy Gigg. / Pag[e]. Lende me your Horne to make⟳ one, and I vvill vvhip about your Infamie vnũ cita a gigge of a Cuckolds horne.”

Pedant [i.e., Holofernes]. You argue like an infant: go whip your gig. / Page. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy, [vnũ cita is unclear; perhaps an error for vidcit = videlicet, "namely"], a gig of a cuckold's horn.

“Play-things vvhich are above their [children's] Skill to make⟳; as Tops, Gigs, Battledors, and the like⟳, vvhich are to be uſed vvith labour, ſhould indeed be procur'd them: Theſe 'tis convenient they ſhould have⟳, not for Variety, but Exerciſe.”

“From infancy through childhood's giddy maze, / Frovvard at ſchool, and fretful in his plays, / The puny tyrant burns to ſubjugate / The free republic of the vvhip-gig ſtate.”

“Such was his toil, when one night coming home, / Such swell uncivil, who'd been out to roam / In search⟳ of lark, or some delicious gig / The mind⟳ delights in, when 'tis in prime twig,—”

“I muſt goe ſee him preſently, / For this is ſuch a gig: for certaine Gentlemen / The Fiend rides on a Fiddleſticke.”

“She [a frigate] also carried a Commodore's Barge, a Captain's Gig, and a "dingy," a small yawl, with a crew of apprentice boys. […] Above all, the officers see⟳ to it that the Commodore's Barge and the Captain's Gig are manned by gentlemanly youths, who do credit to their country, and form⟳ agreeable objects for the eyes of the Commodore or Captain to repose upon as he tranquilly sits in the stern, when pulled ashore by his barge-men or gig-men, as the case may be.”

“The captain's gig still lies before ye whole and sound⟳, / It shall carry⟳ all o' we.”

“While Sir William was with them, Mr. Collins devoted his mornings to driving him out in his gig, and shewing him the country; […]”

“Here a coach thundered over the pavement, and there an unwieldy omnibus, with spruce gigs rattling past, and horsemen prancing through all the bustle.”

“[W]hen he was gone (in the carriage, mind⟳ you, not in the gig driven by the groom), I am sure Mrs. Newcome would have⟳ written a letter that night to Her Grace the Duchess Dowager, his mamma, full of praise⟳ of the dear child, his graciousness, his beauty, and his wit, and declaring that she must love⟳ him henceforth and for ever after as a son of her own⟳.”

“[T]he room grew stifling warm and vapor clung to the windowpanes, blurring the throng of people still milling outside the courthouse, a row of tethered gigs and buggies, distant pine trees in a scrawny, ragged grove.”

“On toward dusk some little gypsy boys whittled gigs from river-birch limbs and went to a backwater and gigged frogs until they had a basketful.”

CEFR level