Meaning
The lean day just before payday, when money and food have run low and the cupboard is nearly bare. Traditionally the Thursday before a Friday payday, Ben Johnson day is when a household has to scrape and stretch the last of everything until the wages come, making do with whatever is left. The name, drawn from lore about a man who had nothing to eat, has become the everyday byword for that pinched, empty stretch at the end of the money, a familiar reality of life lived from wage to wage.
Examples
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Cyaa buy nutten today, a Ben Johnson day.
Can't buy anything today, it's the broke day before payday.
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Wi a scrape di pot till payday — pure Ben Johnson day.
We're scraping the pot until payday — it's a lean, broke day.
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Come Ben Johnson day, everybody a cook whatever lef.
Come the day before payday, everyone cooks whatever's left.
Origin
An old Jamaican expression for the hungry, broke day (often the Thursday) right before payday — its exact origin is folk memory, but it names the lean stretch when the last of the money must be eked out.
How it’s used
Refers to the broke, food-short day just before wages are paid.