wet job

1 9.9

An illegal secret job to kill or hurt someone for an organization

noun

NSFW

: trabajo sucio

A little wet job in Bosnia.

Examples

For particularly messy or wet jobs, a person might simply wrap a lamba hoany around the body under the armpits, as one would wear a towel after a shower.

Academic text (2003)
The agency often assigns its agents to carry out a wet job when a target needs to be eliminated discreetly.
He was notorious in the underworld for handling wet jobs that left no witnesses behind.
They were hired for a wet job that involved taking out a rival's leader in the dark of night.

Synonyms

wet work

vswet job

Offensive

2 9.9

Secret killings and violent acts that governments or criminals carry out

is broader, applying to illicit or morally dubious tasks beyond killings

Surface Forms

wet job singular

wet jobs plural

Morphology

wet + job

The meaning 'an assassination or violent illicit task' cannot be derived from the literal senses of 'wet' (covered with liquid) and 'job' (task); a B1 learner who knows the constituents would most likely interpret it as a task involving water. This phrase is slang/jargon (cf. 'wet work') where 'wet' metaphorically signals blood/violence, a non-compositional shift that is unpredictable without prior exposure, so it is opaque to learners.

Etymology

Wet job may come from the strong image of someone getting their hands wet with another person's blood when they kill, so 'wet' stood for blood and violence. That's why it now means 'a violent or illegal job' often done for a group or agency.