plum job
1
5.1
- noun
- /plʌm dʒɑb/
- Informal
:
trabajo deseado
- Landing a plum job with great benefits and a high salary is the goal for many new graduates.
- land a plum job
- get a plum job
- offered him a plum job
Examples
-
Originally, Blagojevich hoped for a cabinet post (HHS) or ambassadorship, or later a plum job with a nonprofit or a union affiliated.
Blog text (26) -
But you've got this plum job in romance.
-
"Because I took another job, a plum job, the most desirable job in the television writing business," she said.
Fiction book (1999) -
Still, it's a plum job that looks nice on any resume.
Blog text (11) -
That's because he just lost his plum job.
Blog text (13) -
At thirty-six, she was one of three partners in a firm that was landing plum jobs up and down the East Coast.
Fiction book (1992) -
Here is an example of some of the plum jobs college grads were able to land during the Obama administration.
Blog text (26) -
When he was a teenager, his country gained its independence, and because of his skills, he obtained a plum job on a cruise ship as a mechanic.
Blog text (18) -
"Daiwa was one of the plum jobs the Institute tossed us—teaching English at night to a bunch of bankers.
Fiction book (1996) -
Joshua Garlick had worked on Lion Gardiner's island estate—a plum job.
Blog text (21)
Synonyms
21
6.2
A job in an organization that many people want
17
7.8
A very desirable job with good pay or benefits
How Desirable
∞
1.0
- Informal
1
5.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The headword 'plum' here is a metaphorical extension (something desirable) rather than its literal fruit sense, so the phrase's meaning depends on knowing that extended sense. If a learner knows 'plum' in the extended sense 'very desirable', the meaning of 'plum job' is directly derivable, but this extended sense is not universally known at B1 and the mapping is partly figurative and language-specific, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Plum job may come from the idea of a plum as a sweet, special fruit that people wanted to get. Because a plum was like a small prize, people began to call a very good, well-paid position a plum job, so the phrase now means 'a very desirable job'.