gig
Pluralgigs, gig
Pluralgigs, gig
- 1A performing engagement for a musician or group, or by extension a job or role for any performer in film, television, or theater.
The quartet booked three gigs over the holiday weekend.
Landing a steady gig on the soap opera changed her career.
UsageMusicians play, book or land a gig, and the gig is at a venue: a gig at a club.
Similarbooking, show, engagement, job
Note
From the bandstand it spread to actors' roles in film, television and theater, and more widely to any freelance job, so a gig can now be almost any short-term engagement.
- 2Paid work of any kind, especially a temporary or freelance job or one done on demand.
Many workers juggle several gigs to make ends meet.
She took a short editing gig to cover the rent.
UsageInformally even steady work can be a gig: a steady gig. In formal writing, say job.
Similarjob, assignment, contract
Note
Stretched from the stage to work of any kind, the word keeps a sense of impermanence. Geoffrey Nunberg, on Fresh Air in 2016, called it a hip term for any temporary stint, implying you are not particularly invested in it.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The general-work sense developed from musicians’ slang. wuot.org
- Nunberg’s commentary appeared on Fresh Air in 2016. ischool.berkeley.edu
- Nunberg described gig as a hip term for temporary work suggesting limited personal investment. wuot.org
- 3
- 4An informal shortening of any measurement unit that carries the SI prefix giga-, equal to a billion of the base unit.
Modern processors run at several gigs, far faster than early models.
Each gig of bandwidth costs extra on that plan.
UsageGigs of data or storage; in writing, the full unit (gigabytes, gigahertz) is the usual choice.
Note
Giga- multiplies by a billion, and context supplies whatever it is multiplying, so a processor's gigs and a plan's gigs of bandwidth measure different things. It covers gigabytes most often, but gigahertz and other units too.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Giga- multiplies a unit by one billion. en.wiktionary.org
- Processor clock rates and network bandwidth measure different quantities, using different giga-prefixed units. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 5To work at jobs that are freelance, temporary, or done on an on-demand basis.
Many graduates gig for years before landing permanent positions.
He has been gigging through several apps since losing his office job.
UsageOften with for or through a company or app: gig for a delivery service.
- 6A light, narrow boat, usually rowed but sometimes sailed, used as a ship's boat or for racing.
The captain's gig pulled alongside the frigate at dusk.
Two gigs were launched to carry messages between the anchored ships.
UsageUsed in captain's gig for a ship's boat and pilot gig for a boat that carries pilots.
Note
Herman Melville in 1850 sets the Captain's Gig beside the Commodore's Barge and a small dinghy. Each boat is ranked by whom it carries, and its crew is chosen to match. Stan Rogers revives the term in a 1979 sea song, and navies still use the phrase for a commanding officer's boat.
- 7A demerit given for breaking a military rule about dress or conduct.
The cadet earned a gig for failing the morning inspection.
A string of gigs kept her confined to base.
UsageYou get a gig for a fault: a gig for a sloppy uniform, and gigs can add up.
Similardemerit
Note
A gig is a mark against you for an undone button or a sloppy uniform. It has a matching verb, so the sergeant who gigs you is the one who gives you the gig.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A gig can be received for undone uniform buttons. en.wiktionary.org
- Poor uniform appearance can result in gigs. nps.gov
- The matching verb means to give someone a military demerit. en.wiktionary.org
- 8To give someone a demerit for breaking a military rule about dress or conduct.
The officer gigged three cadets during the surprise inspection.
Instructors gig recruits for the smallest lapses in appearance.
UsageGig someone for a fault: gigged him for an unmade bunk.
- 9A one-horse carriage running on a single pair of wheels.
The young curate kept a smart gig for his rounds about the parish.
Here a coach thundered over the pavement, and there an unwieldy omnibus, with spruce gigs rattling past, and horsemen prancing through all the bustle.
1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “[Tales and Sketches.] Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man.”Note
A carriage with a social rank. Jane Austen's Mr. Collins proudly drives Sir William around in his gig in Pride and Prejudice (1813). Thackeray's narrator in The Newcomes (1853–55) imagines Clive, were he a duke, leaving "in the carriage, mind you, not in the gig," because the gig was the humbler vehicle. It is a historical word now, natural in period scenes like William Styron's row of "tethered gigs and buggies."
- 10A spear with a barbed head, used for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals.
The fisherman balanced the gig in one hand, ready to strike at the first flounder.
Barbed gigs hold a thrashing fish far better than smooth points do.
Note
The spear is a clipping of fishgig or fizgig, perhaps from Spanish fisga, "harpoon." It has no known link to the musician's word. It is often a rough, homemade tool. In Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain (1997), boys whittle gigs from river-birch limbs and use them to gig frogs by the basketful in a backwater.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The spear noun gig is a clipping of fishgig or fizgig. en.wiktionary.org
- The word may ultimately derive from Spanish fisga, meaning harpoon. en.wiktionary.org
- Charles Frazier wrote Cold Mountain, first published in 1997. charlesfrazier.com
- Cold Mountain describes boys making gigs from river-birch limbs and catching a basketful of frogs in a backwater. files.znu.edu.ua
- 11To catch fish, frogs, or other small animals with a barbed spear.
Locals gig flounder in the shallows after dark, using lanterns to spot them.
She gigged three bullfrogs before the moon rose.
Similarspear
- 12To make a joke at someone's expense, often condescendingly; to make fun of.
His coworkers gig him constantly about his terrible parking.
They gigged the new recruit until he learned to laugh along.
UsageGig someone about something. In the military demerit sense, gig someone for a fault.
- 13Fun or merriment; also, a joke, prank, or passing whim.
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,—
1820, Richard Ranger, “Randall; a Fragment. With Notes”Note
Old slang for high spirits, used like fun, as a mass noun with no article needed. Richard Ranger's 1820 verse about the boxer Jack Randall pairs it with lark: a roaming swell goes "in search of lark, or some delicious gig." The word is archaic or dialectal today, and best left to period writing.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Gig was old slang for fun or high spirits and could be used as a mass noun without an article. gutenberg.org
- Richard Ranger is credited with the verse about Randall. en.wiktionary.org
- Jack Randall was a boxer. gutenberg.org
- The quoted line pairs lark with gig and describes a swell who has been roaming. en.wiktionary.org
- 14A person of odd or outlandish appearance; also, a fool.
Note
Schoolboy slang associated with Eton College, surviving now only as an archaic or dialectal British word. It is a put-down for someone who looks peculiar, and then for someone who acts like a fool. It turns up in late-18th-century letters and stage comedy. Today most listeners would hear the musician's gig instead.
- 15A spinning top set going by winding a string around it and throwing it so the string unwinds rapidly; a whipping-top.
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.
1782, William Cowper, “Hope”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.
c. 1595, William Shakespeare, A Pleasant Conceited Comedie CalledNote
The toy at the root of a large family: Middle English gigg meant a spinning object or top, perhaps from a Norse source. Shakespeare's pedant tells a page to "goe whip thy Gigg." John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education lists "Tops, Gigs, Battledors," and William Cowper writes whip-gig in 1782. It is now obsolete and suits only historical writing.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 8 facts
- The spinning-top sense underlies several other senses of gig. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English gigg meant a spinning object or top. en.wiktionary.org
- A Norse origin is proposed. en.wiktionary.org
- Shakespeare's schoolmaster Holofernes tells the page Moth to whip his gig. shakespeare.mit.edu
- The first publication was in 1693; 1695 dates the third edition cited by Wiktionary. en.wikisource.org
- Locke lists tops, gigs, and battledors. en.wikisource.org
- Cowper uses whip-gig. eighteenthcenturypoetry.org
- Cowper's cited work appeared in 1782. eighteenthcenturypoetry.org
- 16A young woman given to frivolity, play, or wantonness; a giglet or giglot.
Note
This word may have a separate origin: Middle English gig. It may come from Old French gigue, "tall, skinny girl," itself from Old Norse gikkr, "pert person," a relative of Swedish gäck, "fool." It is obsolete, and it shares its synonym fizgig with the barbed fishing spear. In older texts, only context tells you whether a fizgig is a flirt or a weapon.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The word descends from Middle English gig. en.wiktionary.org
- The cited proposal derives the English word through Old French gigue from Old Norse gikkr; these are successive stages, not alternatives. en.wiktionary.org
- Norse gikkr is related to Swedish gäck, glossed as fool. en.wiktionary.org
- Fizgig can mean a flirtatious girl. en.wiktionary.org
- Fizgig also denotes a fishing weapon. en.wiktionary.org
- Context distinguishes the girl and weapon meanings. en.wiktionary.org
- 17To ride in a gig, a two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
No one knows where the noun comes from, though Old French gigue ("a fiddle") is a possible comparison. The verb comes from the noun.
Each sense is a shortened word. Sense 1 cuts down gigabyte, and sense 2 cuts down giga-, the prefix that multiplies a unit by one billion.
The noun goes back to Middle English gigg, gigge, gygge, a spinning object or top, but its earlier history is uncertain. It may be from Old Norse (Danish gig, "a top," and dialectal Norwegian giga, "to shake about," are comparable), which would trace it to Proto-Germanic *gīganą ("to wish, desire, move") and the Proto-Indo-European root *gʰeyǵʰ- ("to yawn, gape, long for"). Or it may in the end imitate a sound. The other senses are thought to grow out of the "whipping-top" sense, though how exactly is unclear, and the verb comes from the noun.
Middle English gig, gigge, gegge has two possible sources. One is Old French gigue ("tall, skinny girl"), which came from Old Norse gikkr ("pert person"), a relative of Danish gjæk and Swedish gäck ("fool, jester"). The other is Middle English gigg, gigge, gygge, meaning a top or spinning object.
Spanish fisga ("harpoon") may lie behind fishgig or fizgig, and the noun is a shortened form of those words. The verb was made from the noun.