day's-work
(ˈdeɪzwɜːk)
(Also written as two words.) a. The work of a day, work done on or proper to a day. Also = daywork 2 (obs.).
| 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, ii. i. 1 Now haue I done a good daies work. 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey ii. vii. 59 Foure square Pearches make a Daiesworke, 10 Daie-workes a Roode. 1640 G. H. Witt's Recreations H ij a, Your dayes work's done, each morning as you rise. c 1836 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) IV. 395 Paying him for more day's works. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 10 The logboard, the contents of which are termed ‘the log’,—the working it off, ‘the day's work’. |
b. all in the day's work, something unusual but nevertheless taken as part of one's ordinary duty or routine. Freq. ironical.
| [1738 Swift Polite Conv. i. 39 Will you be so kind to tie this String for me..? it will go all in your Day's Work.] 1820 Scott Monast. I. ix. 248 That will cost me a farther ride,..but it is all in the day's work. 1857 Kingsley Two Y. Ago iii. iii. 91 All in the day's work, my boy. 1897 [see work n. 33]. 1939 War Illustr. 220/2 He is not deeply impressed by his experience. ‘It is all in the day's work’ were his parting words to me. 1953 A. Christie Pocket full of Rye x. 60 This sort of thing seems ordinary enough to you, Inspector. All in the day's work. |