Word.ws English Dictionary

don't give up the day job

don't give up the day job is the alternative form of don't give up your day job.

Meaning of don't give up your day job

Phrase

don't give up your day job

  1. (humorous, idiomatic, often) Somewhat sarcastic but usually good-natured advice used to criticise a person's degree of talent (especially in music or other performing arts), implying that they are unlikely to be successful.
    • When the accounting department's barbershop quartet was warming up, the sales team was ribbing them, yelling, "Don't give up your day job!"

Questions about don't give up the day job

What is don't give up the day job the alternative form of?
Don't give up the day job is the alternative form of don't give up your day job.

Words near don't give up the day job in the dictionary

  1. don't get someone started
  2. don't get your honey where you make your money
  3. don't get your hopes up
  4. don't get your meat where you get your bread
  5. don't give me that
  6. don't give up the day job
  7. don't give up your day job
  8. don't go there
  9. don't got
  10. don't hate the player, hate the game
  11. don't hold your breath

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: don't give up the day job (page history and authors); don't give up your day job (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “don't give up the day job.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/don%27t_give_up_the_day_job. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.