moonlighting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of moonlight.

   The actor has been moonlighting as a jazz pianist between film roles.

   The protein appears to be moonlighting, carrying out a second job inside the cell nucleus.

   Note

   The word as often introduces the second role: she has been moonlighting as a jazz pianist. The verb also reaches beyond paid work, to anyone stepping outside what they are known for, and even to proteins carrying out a second job inside the cell. In dated British use it meant doing paid work without declaring it to the authorities.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The practice, or a stretch of time, of working a second job on the side, often in the evening or at night, whether openly or secretly.

   Rising rents have pushed more young workers into moonlighting.

   His brief moonlighting as a wedding photographer ended when his boss found out.

3. 3
   noundateduncountable

   Moonshining: the illegal making of distilled liquor.

   Federal agents traced the illegal whiskey back to a moonlighting operation in the hills.

   His grandfather's moonlighting, a backwoods still and a few hundred jars a year, was an open secret in the county.

   Similarmoonshining, bootlegging

   Note

   Moonshining is the word this one stands in for, rarely and in dated writing, and today it is easily misread: a modern reader will usually take moonlighting to mean working a second job. When the illegal making of liquor is what you mean, moonshining is the clear choice.

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