Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use glib in a sentence

16 example sentences · adjective, verb, noun

Glib means having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow. Example: “A much more thorough examination of this period is essential, and no glib answers should be accepted as good coin.”

Examples of glib by meaning

adjectiveHaving a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow.

  • A much more thorough examination of this period is essential, and no glib answers should be accepted as good coin.2004 August 26, Leslie Feinberg, “Survival with Setbacks”, in Workers World
  • As history is raided, indeed raped, by identitarians and populists, glib judgments on the past become fodder for every tribal grievance.2019 February 14, Simon Jenkins, “The Churchill row is part of the glib approach to history that gave us Brexit”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  • Rather than elevating the prose, the rhymes feel glib and the sentiment vague, shorthand for an unspecified intensity: “They wanted things they couldn’t name; they wanted rest.2026 April 28, Shahidha Bari, “Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest review – painfully earnest tale of trauma and transition”, in The...

adjectiveSmooth or slippery.

  • a sheet of glib ice

adjectiveArtfully persuasive but insincere in nature; smooth-talking, honey-tongued, silver-tongued.

  • a glib tongue
  • a glib speech
  • a glib politician

adjectiveSnarky or unserious in a disrespectful way.

  • Sometimes our relationship is strained, for though we both recognize each other's intelligence, he think's I'm often too serious and I think he's often too glib1986, Daniel Garrett, “Creating Ourselves: An Open Letter”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 93
  • Its style is both open and arch, never verging on glib camp but always a little removed, reducing large emotions to small observations and thereby making them all the more effective.1988 December 25, Michael Bronski, “...And They Called It Puppy Love”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 8
  • McCarthy and asked why he had written a book about such a repellent character, he was glib.2013 October 11, Alexandra Alter, “Literary Giant Obsessed by Movies”, in The Wall Street Journal, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2015

verbTo make smooth or slippery.

  • Wind due north, shrieking over stiff land; two feet of snow, all substances glibbed with ice and granite-hard.1944, Emily Carr, “Gran’s Battle”, in The House of All Sorts

More sentences with glib

  • Some were fake and glib and chattery.1988 January 29, S.L. Wisenberg, “Sorority Rush”, in Chicago Reader, Chicago, I.L.: Chicago Reader, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the…. From the entry chattery
  • I came across Bart on a week away, whoring and drinking mostly, heard his glib stories about where he worked, and there found my opportunity.2015, Rob Thurman, Carniepunk: Painted Love. From the entry ticket to ride
  • Like "Garfield," "Catwoman" is really a parody of catitude, offering glib mockery of a domestic species notorious for its pride and hauteur.2004 July 22, A. O. Scott, “FILM REVIEW; Not-So-Cuddly Cat: This One Cracks a Mean Whip”, in The New York Times. From the entry catitude
  • He is glib, ingratiating, and distinctly 'greasy.' He has a ready answer for everything almost before the question is out of your mouth.1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados. From the entry greasy
  • He does an ingenious job of acting a plain, slow-thinking individualist, but he is often working with an actor like Lancaster who does everything with a glib, showy, Tarzanism.1953 August 29, The Nation, New York, page 178, column 3. From the entry Tarzanism

Meaning of glib

  1. adjective Having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow.
  2. adjective Smooth or slippery.
  3. adjective Artfully persuasive but insincere in nature; smooth-talking, honey-tongued, silver-tongued.

Full definition of glib

Questions about glib in a sentence

How do you use glib in a sentence?
Glib is used as an adjective, verb and noun. For example: “A much more thorough examination of this period is essential, and no glib answers should be accepted as good coin.”
What is a short sentence with glib?
“a glib politician”
What does glib mean?
Glib means having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: glib (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use glib in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/glib. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.