glib

comparative glibber · superlative glibbest

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

   glib answers

   3 more examples

   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. They wanted change.”

   2026 April 28, Shahidha Bari, “Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest review – painfully earnest tale of trauma and transition”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

2. archaicliteralSmooth or slippery.

   a sheet of glib ice

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

   a glib tongue

   5 more examples

   a glib speech

   a glib politician

   I want that glib and oily art, / To speak and purpose not.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   "We are concerned that both the ITC and Ofcom appear to have accepted this glib attempt at justification. We are far from reassured in respect of programming for the Meridian region and for the ITV network, and believe that Ofcom should be much more vigilant on this issue.

   2004 March 4, Owen Gibson, “Ofcom urged to crack down on 'glib' ITV”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   “We see the UK government talking about having victims’ voices heard,” said [Sienna] Merope-Synge. “They have talked about the need for zero tolerance and about leadership. But there are a whole bunch of victims of UN abuse who perceive the UK as very glib about supporting victims.”

   2018 March 13, Karen McVeigh, quoting Sienna Merope-Synge, “'Glib': UK criticised for failing to give to fund for survivors of UN sexual abuse”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: facile, suave

4. Snarky 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 glib

   1986, Daniel Garrett, “Creating Ourselves: An Open Letter”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 93

   2 more examples

   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

   When Mr. Franco called Mr. McCarthy and asked why he had written a book about such a repellent character, he was glib. "He said, verbatim, 'I don't know, James, probably some dumb-ass reason,'" Mr. Franco recalled.

   2013 October 11, Alexandra Alter, “Literary Giant Obsessed by Movies”, in The Wall Street Journal, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2015

present singular third person glibs · participle present glibbing · participle past glibbed · past glibbed

1. transitiveTo make smooth or slippery.

   They are good internally in Fits of the Stone in the Kidneys, by glibbing the Ureters, and making even a large Stone pass with ease […]

   1730, Edward Strother, Dr. Radcliffe’s Practical Dispensatory, London: C. Rivington, page 342

   3 more examples

   1628, Joseph Hal, “Christian Liberty Laid Forth,” in The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D.D., Volume V, London: Williams & Smith, 1808, p. 366, https://books.google.ca/books?id=8iUBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false There is a drunken liberty of the Tongue; which, being once glibbed with intoxicating liquor, runs wild through heaven and earth; and spares neither him that is God above, nor those which are called gods on earth.

   And, when to all his Angels he propos'd / To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud, / That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring, / I undertook that office, and the tongues / Of all his flattering Prophets glibb'd with lyes / To his destruction, as I had in charge.

   1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 21, lines 371–376

   We were having one of our bitterest cold snaps. 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

plural glibs

1. UKobsoleteslangA person's mouth or tongue.

   "Well, Sal, you mum your dubber pretty generally, but when you do slacken your glib you may as well do it civilly."

   1857, Hidden Links; Or the Schoolfellows. A Tale, volume 2, page 233

   Synonyms: dubber

plural glibs

1. historicalA mass of matted hair worn down over the eyes, formerly common in Ireland.

   Their wild costume of the glib and mantle.

   1829, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More, or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society

   3 more examples

   Whom when she saw in wretched weedes disguiz'd, / With heary glib deform'd and meiger face, / Like ghost late risen from his grave agryz'd, / She knew him not […]

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   The Irish have, from the Scythians, mantles and long glibs, which is a thick curled bush of hair hanging down over their eyes, and monstrously disguising them.

   1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC

   But in the dead of njight, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in hand, with a dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib over his ugly face, and his skene in his hand.

   1855, Charles Kingsley, “Clovelly Court in the Olden Time”, in Westward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, […], volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 163

present singular third person glibs · participle present glibbing · participle past glibbed · past glibbed

1. obsoleteTo castrate; to geld; to emasculate.

   Fourteen they shall not see To bring false generations. They are co-heirs; And I had rather glib myself than they Should not produce fair issue.

   c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]