Word.ws English Dictionary

don't give up your day job

don't give up your day job phrase: 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.

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!"
    • "I remember after the school was over," he said, "I went up to the instructor just completely wound up like: ‘O.K. man, how do I do this and become a real racecar driver? I want to quit my job and do this.’ . . . And he goes: ‘Other Sports Beckon. You suck. Don't give up your day job.’ "2006 July 3, Viv Bernstein, “Said Makes His Case for Success in Nascar”, in New York Times, retrieved 11 Oct 2015

Synonyms of don't give up your day job

Questions about don't give up your day job

What does don't give up your day job mean?
Don't give up your day job means 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.
What part of speech is don't give up your day job?
Don't give up your day job is a phrase.

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

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-don't give up your day job.ogg.

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