9 to 5

See also: 9-to-5

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From the common western business hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Noun

9 to 5 (plural 9 to 5s)

  1. A day job, especially at a large company, emphasizing banality.
    • 1976 March, advertisement, Popular Mechanics, page 44,
      By day, he′s a 9-to-5 man. By night, an explorer in a field that really interests him!
    • 2005 December, Zondra Hughes, Save Your Marriage Now!: Divorce-Busters That Work, Ebony, page 146,
      Keisha works a 9-to-5, picks up their son from the day care and then heads home to prepare dinner for the family.
  2. The workday itself (the period of the day between 9 am and 5 pm).
    • 2000, Renata Somogyi, Inner Peace in a 9-To-5 World: Attaining Enlightenment Amidst the Chaos.
    • 2006 July, Max King, Leading Edge: It′s Good to be King, Running Times, page 58,
      [D]uring his heyday, Bill Rodgers emphatically stated, “No runner working 9 to 5 can beat me”, attesting that training for elite distance competition had become a full-time job in itself.
    • 2010 January-February, Lou′s Clues: Getting to Work (editorial), Ancestry Magazine, page 6,
      And you might decide that our 9-to-5s today just aren′t so tough.
  3. One who works in a job from 9 am to 5 pm.
    • 2009, Scott Brown, Treat Your Poker Like a Business, page 101:
      Stock markets crash, businesses go bankrupt, and 9-to-5s can disappear from layoffs and downsizing.

Synonyms

  • (day job): 9-to-5 job, nine-to-five job
  • (workday):
  • (day worker):

Translations

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