jibe
UK/d͡ʒaɪb/
jibe noun: a facetious or insulting remark; a jeer, a taunt. Also the alternative spelling of gybe.
Noun
jibe (plural jibes)
- A facetious or insulting remark; a jeer, a taunt.
- He flung subtle jibes at her until she couldn’t bear to work with him any longer.
- Alas poore Yoricke, […] where be your gibes now? your gamboles? your ſongs? your flaſhes of merriment, that were wont to ſet the table on a roare, not one now to mocke your owne grinning, quite chopfalne.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604...
- Synonyms:
- sideswipe
Verb (1)
jibe (third-person singular simple present jibes, present participle jibing, simple past and past participle jibed)
- To reproach with contemptuous words; to deride, to mock, to taunt.
- [Y]ou / Did pocket vp my Letters: and with taunts / Did gibe my Miſive out of audience.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- We could hardly speak before for fear of our Taskmasters; but we dare now Nose those Villains that used to gibe us.1714, John Arbuthnot, A Farther Continuation of the History of the Crown-Inn: Part III. Containing the Present State of the Inn, and Other Particulars, 2nd edition, London: Printed for J. Moor, […]...
- To say in a mocking or taunting manner.
- Scarlett felt her heart begin its mad racing again and she clutched her hand against it unconsciously, as if she would squeeze it into submission. "Eavesdroppers often hear highly instructive things," jibed a memory.1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter VI, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published June 1944, →OCLC, part I, page 121
- To make a mocking remark or remarks; to jeer.
- Why thats the way to choake a gibing ſpirrit, / Whoſe influence is begot of that looſe grace, / Which ſhallow laughing hearers giue to fooles, […]c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby...
- This ſet the old Gentlevvoman a Laughing at me, as you may be ſure it vvould: VVell, Madam, Forſooth, ſays ſhe, Gibing at me, you vvould be a Gentlevvoman, and hovv vvill you come to be a Gentlevvoman? VVhat vvill you do it by your Fingers Ends?1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page...
Verb (2)
jibe (third-person singular simple present jibes, present participle jibing, simple past and past participle jibed)
- To accord or agree.
- That explanation doesn’t jibe with the facts.
- [T]here is something wrong with your figures. They do not jibe with experience. They do not jibe with prices. They do not jibe with what we know.1926 May 13, Henry H. Glassie (witness), “Statement of Henry H. Glassie, Member of United States Tariff Commission”, in Investigation of the Tariff Commission: Hearings before the Select Committee on...
Also used as
jibe is also the alternative spelling of gybe.
Examples of jibe in a sentence
- Come, come, we / All are Friends, nor have we Time for Jibe, / Or Anger now, but 'gainſt our common Foes, / The French and Scot; there let your Pray'rs, and Jeſts, / And Blows, be levell’d.1746, [Charles Macklin], King Henry the VII: Or the Popish Impostor. A Tragedy. […], London: Printed for R. Francklin, […]; R[obert]...
- "What's the matter with you?" the woman jibed.1953, James Hilton, “Paris III”, in Time and Time Again (An Atlantic Monthly Press Book), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC...
- This did not jibe with the objectivist view that metaphor is of only peripheral interest in an account of meaning and truth and that it plays at best a marginal role in understanding.1980, George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, chapter 27, in Metaphors We Live By:
Synonyms of jibe
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of jibe
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | jibes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | jibes |
| present participle | jibing |
| past participle | jibed |
| past | jibed |
| alternative form | gibe |
| alternative form | gybe |
Origin of jibe
Uncertain; possibly from Old French giber (“to engage in horseplay; to play roughly in sport”). Compare English jib (“usually of a horse: to stop and refuse to go forward”), Old Norse geipa (“to talk nonsense”). The noun is derived from the verb.
Origin unknown; perhaps related to chime (“to cause to sound in harmony”).
See gybe.
Words formed from jibe
Words that rhyme with jibe
5 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about jibe
- What does jibe mean?
- Jibe means a facetious or insulting remark; a jeer, a taunt.
- How do you use jibe in a sentence?
- Come, come, we / All are Friends, nor have we Time for Jibe, / Or Anger now, but 'gainſt our common Foes, / The French and Scot; there let your Pray'rs, and Jeſts, / And Blows, be levell’d.
- What part of speech is jibe?
- Jibe can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce jibe?
- Jibe is pronounced /d͡ʒaɪb/ (UK).
- What is the plural of jibe?
- The plural of jibe is jibes.
Words near jibe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jibe (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-jibe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “jibe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jibe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.