gybe
/d͡ʒaɪb/
gybe verb: to shift a fore-and-aft sail from one side of a sailing vessel to the other, while sailing before the wind. Also the alternative spelling of jibe.
Verb
gybe (third-person singular simple present gybes, present participle gybing, simple past and past participle gybed)
- To shift a fore-and-aft sail from one side of a sailing vessel to the other, while sailing before the wind.
- Of a fore-and-aft sail or its boom: to shift, often forcefully and suddenly, from one side of a sailing vessel to the other.
- […] I had my Man Friday to teach as to what belong'd to the Navigation of my Boat; for though he knew very well how to paddle a Canoe, he knew nothing what belong'd to a Sail and a Rudder, and was the moſt amaz'd when he ſaw me work the Boat too and again in the Sea by the Rudder, and how the Sail...1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 271
- Generally of a small sailing vessel: to change tack with the wind crossing behind the vessel.
- Often as gybe at: to balk, hesitate, or vacillate when faced with a course of action, plan, or proposal.
Noun
gybe (plural gybes)
- A sudden shift of a sail's angle, or a sudden change in the direction that a vessel is sailing in.
- A manoeuvre in which the stern of a sailing vessel crosses the wind, typically resulting in the forceful and sudden sweep of the boom from one side of the vessel to the other.
- The key to a good gybe is to bring the spinnaker round to the old weather side before you begin, and then to steer to keep some wind in the kite.2014, Tim Davison, “Symmetric Spinnakers”, in Skipper’s Cockpit Racing Guide: For Dinghies, Keelboats and Yachts, London: Adlard Coles Nautical, →ISBN, page 24
- A sudden change in approach or direction; vacillation.
Also used as
gybe is also the alternative spelling of jibe.
Forms of gybe
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | gybes |
| present participle | gybing |
| past participle | gybed |
| past | gybed |
| Noun | |
| plural | gybes |
| alternative form | gibe |
| alternative form | jibe |
Origin of gybe
Probably from Dutch gijben (obsolete), gijpen; cognate with Danish gibbe, German gieben, giepen, Swedish gipa, gippa. The noun is derived from the verb; compare Dutch gijb (obsolete), gijp (“act of gybing; a boom”).
See jibe.
Words that rhyme with gybe
- subscribe
- tribe
- vibe
- scribe
- transcribe
- describe
- inscribe
- prescribe
- ascribe
- bribe
- circumscribe
- imbibe
5 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about gybe
- What does gybe mean?
- Gybe means to shift a fore-and-aft sail from one side of a sailing vessel to the other, while sailing before the wind.
- What part of speech is gybe?
- Gybe can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce gybe?
- Gybe is pronounced /d͡ʒaɪb/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of gybe?
- The past tense of gybe is gybed.
Words near gybe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gybe (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gybe.wav.
Cite this entry: “gybe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gybe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.