Meaning of jobsworth in English:
jobsworth
Translate jobsworth into Spanish
noun
informal, derogatory BritishAn official who upholds petty rules even at the expense of humanity or common sense.
- ‘parks abound with jobsworths who delight in yelling that you can't do that without special permission’
- ‘This bore was regaling anyone who cared to listen with the story of how an officious jobsworth had refused him admission to some function or other.’
- ‘I fear this is just down to jobsworths and political correctness.’
- ‘Grandmas were unable to visit grandchildren; lovers were separated by the jobsworths at the ‘Bloodcheck’ booths.’
- ‘The inference was unambiguous: the parliament was an intrusive, petty-minded bunch of jobsworths, bereft of any credibility.’
- ‘Aren't these Sureway jobsworths just a bit vindictive?’
- ‘We wholeheartedly applaud what they are trying to do, and those responsible for this ludicrous decision are just jobsworths.’
- ‘Perhaps these plucky jobsworths are all that stands between civilised society and post - rock revolution!’
- ‘Why am I cursed with supporting a club full of losers and jobsworths?’
- ‘It must have been galling to take orders from jobsworths - to feel useless, just another cog within a cog.’
- ‘Cynical council tax payers are already pillorying beleaguered jobsworths for wasting their cash.’
- ‘May I congratulate those jobsworths at Postwatch for saving their own skins by doing nothing.’
- ‘He appears to have won that battle because fire safety officers are much more sensible, but there is no defeating the jobsworth.’
- ‘But in the congratulating throng, a jobsworth barred him from the hallowed ground.’
- ‘The guy behind the counter was the biggest jobsworth you could ever hope to encounter.’
- ‘If he had been a jobsworth he would have gone home but he stayed there for six or eight hours and got no extra pay.’
- ‘I feel as if a day of my working life or living life has been taken away by someone who is a jobsworth.’
- ‘Privacy International reckons jobsworths have become a global menace.’
- ‘Occassionaly you get a jobsworth, but not often.’
- ‘The bus stopped and we were all told by Eddie to be silent as a military style jobsworth with an unfeasibly large hat looked the bus over.’
- ‘I resent some jobsworth thinking I'd blagged my way on to the practice ground.’
Origin
1970s from ‘it's more than my job's worth (not) to’.
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