gig1
/ɡɪɡ
/noun
1chiefly historical A light two-wheeled carriage pulled by one horse.During the war we had a gig with a cart horse and used to bowl along around the north-west end of town - great transport when petrol was rationed....
- Luckily for him, her carriage was an open gig, and she had no trouble hearing him above the crickets and the wind.
- On one occasion the Archdeacon conducted a service on the verandah and the neighbours arrived for this in gigs, on horseback and in cars.
2A light, fast, narrow boat adapted for rowing or sailing.The new gig should be out of the builders by April next year, giving plenty of time to think of a name....
- An hour or two later, the ferry tows the gigs home.
Origin
Late 18th century: apparently a transferred sense of obsolete gig 'a flighty girl', which was also applied to various objects or devices that whirled.
Rhymes
gig2
/ɡɪɡ/informal
noun
1A live performance by a musician or group playing popular or jazz music.Imagine being a successful Jazz musician playing gigs on the road, performing in the Big Apple's coolest clubs and even under the stage lights of Broadway....
- I also did quite a lot of gigs with different set-ups and I always had to re-arrange the music again for these gigs, which takes a lot of time.
- This not-to-be-missed gig on November 6 at 8.30 pm is a welcome highlight for all fans of traditional music and live gigs.
1.1A task or assignment: working on the sea and spotting whales seemed like a great gig...
- That might be an even tougher assignment than his international gig.
- After I get writing gigs, I try to take care of them as soon as I can.
- In any event, it couldn't have helped me, and I continue to pay the rent with menial office work and a few freelance writing gigs.
verb (gigs, gigging, gigged) [no object]
1Perform a gig or gigs: two or three nights a week we were gigging...
- That, my friends, could be the album's only fatal flaw - they've been gigging solidly with these songs, and when the album's released they'll be gigging with them again.
- Evidently, from the tight togetherness of the playing here, these were accomplished show bands used to endlessly gigging.
- We plan to gig as much as we can and hopefully get an album released, we have enough material.
1.1 [with object] Use (a piece of musical equipment) at a gig: 12-string guitar, mint condition, never gigged
Origin
1920s: of unknown origin.
gig3
/ɡɪɡ/noun
A harpoon-like weapon used for catching fish.
verb (gigs, gigging, gigged) [no object]
Fish using a gig.
Origin
Early 18th century: shortening of earlier (rarely used) fizgig, probably from Spanish fisga 'harpoon'.
gig4
/ɡɪɡ/ /dʒɪɡ/noun Computing, informal
Short for gigabyte. over 9 gigs of programs for the PC...
- The good news is, you get an extra gig of data download to watch this.
- In an entire month, this web site might use up 60 gigs in bandwidth - although unlikely.
- The user was cut off after downloading 150 gigs this month.