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Glite Dictionary
don't give up your day job

don't give up your day job

9.0
A joking way to say someone is not good enough to do something as a job
  • idiom
  • Offensive
translation icon : no dejar tu trabajo
  • I wouldn't give up your day job.

Examples

  • When he tried to sing at the party, everyone laughed and told him, 'Don't give up your day job!'

  • After his first stand-up routine, the audience politely said, 'Don't give up your day job yet.'

  • You should stick to painting as a hobby; don't give up your day job.

Synonyms

cobbler, keep to your last
vsdon't give up your day job
  • Archaic
9.9

To tell someone to stick to what they know

is a humorous remark telling someone to continue their usual paid work

Antonyms

to excel at
20 3.4

To be very good at a subject or skill

to make a career of
4 3.7

Choose a job or activity as your main paid work for many years

How Skilled

professional
∞ 3.4
don't give up your day job
  • Offensive
9.0

Surface Forms

don't give up your day job main

Morphology

don't + give + up + your + day + job

Literally the phrase says 'do not quit your regular job', so a learner who knows the words can reconstruct that surface meaning, but the common use is a sarcastic idiom meaning 'you are not good enough to do this professionally.' The pragmatic, humorous evaluative sense is not fully predictable from the parts alone, so a B1 learner would likely miss the idiomatic nuance without exposure.

Etymology

Don't give up your day job comes from a simple image: someone tries a hobby and does it badly, so a friend tells them to keep their day job. That's why it means 'not good enough to do this professionally', so don't quit your regular work.