gig

noun

1. (informal)Originally (music), a performing engagement by a musician or musical group; (by extension, film, television, theater) a job or role for a performer.

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

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

2. (broadly, informal)Any job, especially one that is freelance or temporary, or done on an on-demand basis.

   “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.”

3. (US, informal)A demerit received for some infraction of a military deportment or dress code.

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

4. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal)Clipping of gigabyte (“one billion (1,000,000,000) bytes”).

   “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.”

5. (informal, slang)Any unit of measurement having the SI prefix giga-.
6. (informal, obsolete)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.

   “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.”

   “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.”

7. (British, archaic, dialectal, informal)A person with an odd appearance; also, a foolish person.
8. (British, archaic, dialectal, informal, slang)Senses relating to enjoyment.

   “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,—”

9. (informal, obsolete)Senses relating to enjoyment.

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

10. (informal)Senses relating to vehicles.

    “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.”

11. (Southern-England, broadly, informal)Senses relating to vehicles.
12. (historical, informal)Senses relating to vehicles.

    “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.”

13. (informal, obsolete)A frivolous, playful, or wanton young woman; a giglet or giglot.
14. (informal)Synonym of fishgig or fizgig (“a spear with a barb on the end of it, used for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals”).

    “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.”

verb

1. (informal, transitive)To play (a musical instrument) at a gig.
2. (US, informal, transitive)To impose a demerit (on someone) for an infraction of a military deportment or dress code.

   “His sergeant gigged him for an unmade bunk.”

3. (informal, intransitive)To engage in a musical performance, act in a theatre production, etc.

   “The Rolling Stones were gigging around Richmond at the time.”

4. (broadly, informal, intransitive)To work at any job, especially one that is freelance or temporary, or done on an on-demand basis.
5. (informal, transitive)To make a joke, often condescendingly, at the expense of (someone); to make fun of.

   “His older cousin was just gigging him about being in love with that girl from school.”

6. (informal, intransitive)Sometimes followed by it: to ride in a gig (“a two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse”).
7. (informal, transitive)To spear (fish, etc.) with a gig or fizgig.
8. (informal, intransitive)To catch or fish with a gig or fizgig.