working stiff

working stiff

Someone who works very hard day in, day out, especially in a menial, lower-paying, or non-managerial position. None of this corporate politics stuff matters much to a working stiff like me, so long as I keep getting a pay check at the end of the week. My dad might have just been a working stiff, but he made damn sure that his kids got the opportunities and advantages he never had growing up.
See also: stiff, working
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

working stiff

Fig. someone who works, especially in a nonmanagement position. (Originally and typically referring to males.) But does the working stiff really care about all this economic stuff? All the working stiffs want is a raise.
See also: stiff, working
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

working stiff

n. a working man; a man who must work to live. (see also stiff.) But does the working stiff really care about all this economic stuff?
See also: stiff, working
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

working stiff

A hardworking employee. First heard in the 1930s, this phrase describes your average guy or gal who works at a not-very-interesting- or-stimulating job and for wages that mean a paycheck-to-paycheck existence. “Stiff ” might have come from muscle fatigues at the end of the day or week, but it's just as likely to be the slang word for “corpse,” which would reflect the idea of a working stiff in a dead-end job.
See also: stiff, working
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • just another day at the office
  • from day to day
  • make a day of (doing something)
  • make a day of doing
  • make a day of it
  • day out
  • day by day
  • fight fires
  • from one day to the next
  • (just) one of those days
References in periodicals archive
RALPH KRAMDEN AND ED Norton were a couple of working stiffs from Brooklyn.
FROM MUTUAL AID TO THE WELFARE STATE
Law & Order and Homicide present their protagonists as low-key working stiffs with a strong sense of morals who ploddingly put together the clues that will solve a crime.
Copping out
Working stiff bank clerk Apte (Sandeep Kulkarni) sees red when he realizes everyone, from the water carrier to his bank manager boss, is thriving on bribes.
Dombivli Fast
Short-fused, working stiff Raghu (Patekar) can't hold down a regular job, and works as a cabbie without his wife, Sunita (Sonali Kulkarni) knowing.
Taxi No. 9211
How's a working stiff to cope with all the demands and still stay sane?
Fashion passion: stars maintain sartorial splendor with stylists and good humor
What does this mean to actual working stiffs and their families?
Free stuff in perspective
a brain surgeon, but with an affordable rifle within reach of working stiffs.
RUGER AFRICAN 9.3X62: A CLASSIC PLATFORM FOR A STORIED GERMAN METRIC
Many of us race side-by-side with professionals, yet we are mere working stiffs by day.
Technology Cycle: The Tech Tools Professionals Use Personally
So I count myself among the rest of us working stiffs who worry about job security.
On job security
And all working stiffs are rushing to complete the task for which they have had 365 days, but still neglected until the last frantic weekend.
The rites of spring
In the phraseology of the underworld, "Working stiffs." And that is all they are; hard working toilers at the worst and most severe of jobs.
SATURDAY NIGHT IN CALGARY IN 1911
Wall Street is about as close as it has ever been to being full of working stiffs. Clock-punchers.
Time to stop blaming Wall Street
Keaton made his television debut in 1975 in the children's series "Mister Roger's Neighborhood." His big break was in 1977 when he joined the cast of the sitcom "All's Fair," after he appeared in that sitcom he landed a role in the comedy, "Working Stiffs." However, after the cancellation of the show, he tried to appear in television shows again and he succeeded in 1982.
et Inspires: Quote of the Day
For all the questionable utility of some programs of study in both high school and institutes of "higher learning," it seems there is room for programs with the explicit objective of teaching our youth the basics of survival in the world of working stiffs.
Feedback
especially hipster font how truly I relate to the working stiffs
Love Poem for the Proles