jibe

plural jibes

1. 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.

   5 more examples

   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, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   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] Dodsley, […]; and J. Brotherton, […], →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 24

   She ran and ran / As if she feared some goblin man / Dogged her with gibe or curse / Or something worse: […]

   1862, Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market”, in Goblin Market and Other Poems, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; London: Macmillan & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 24–25

   He bent to all the gibes and prejudices, to all hatred and discrimination, with that rare courtesy which is the armor of pure souls.

   1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of Alexander Crummell”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, page 226

   He had written two novels: one of them violently anti-Catholic, just before his conversion, and five years later another, in which he had attempted to turn all his clever jibes against Catholics into even cleverer innuendoes against Episcopalians.

   1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “Amory, Son of Beatrice”, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book I (The Romantic Egotist), page 26

   Synonyms: sideswipe

present singular third person jibes · participle present jibing · participle past jibed · past jibed · alternative gibe · alternative gybe

1. transitiveTo 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, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 346, column 1

   2 more examples

   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, […], →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Mar 2019, page 15

   How I want thee, hum'rous Hogarth! / Thou, I hear, a pleaſant Rogue art; / […] / Draw the Beaſts as I deſcribe them, / From their Features, while I gibe them.

   a. 1746, [Jonathan] Swift, “A Character, Panegyrick, and Description of the Legion Club”, in Miscellanies, 5th edition, volume X, London: Printed for T. Woodward, C. Davis, C. Bathurst, and W[illiam] Bowyer, published 1751, →OCLC, pages 227–228

   Synonyms: flout, scoff, fleer, flout, gird, jeer, scoff, scorn

2. transitiveTo 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

   Synonyms: lampoon, needle, badger, bam, barrack, brock, bullyrag, chiack

3. intransitiveTo make a mocking remark or remarks; to jeer.

   "What's the matter with you?" the woman jibed. She called after him as he walked away: "Nuts, that's what you are!"

   1953, James Hilton, “Paris III”, in Time and Time Again (An Atlantic Monthly Press Book), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 216

   4 more examples

   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, published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]

   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 7

   Thus with talents well endu'd / To be ſcurrilous and rude; / When you pertly raiſe your ſnout, / Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout; […]

   1730, Jonathan Swift, “To Betty the Grizete”, in The Poetical Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. […], Edinburgh: Printed by Mundell and Son, […], published 1794, →OCLC; republished in Robert Anderson, editor, The Works of the British Poets. […], volume IX, London: Printed for John & Arthur Arch; and for Bell & Bradfute, and J. Mundell & Co. Edinburgh, 1795, →OCLC, page 128, column 2

   But now her mother was speaking again: 'And this – read this and tell me if you wrote it, or if that man's lying.' And Stephen must read her own misery jibing at her from those pages in Ralph Crossby's stiff and clerical handwriting.

   1928, Radclyffe Hall, chapter 27, in The Well of Loneliness, London: Jonathan Cape, →OCLC; republished Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 2005, →ISBN, book 2, section I, page 182

   Synonyms: laugh at, scorn, gird, jeer, laugh at, scoff, scorn, sneer

present singular third person jibes · participle present jibing · participle past jibed · past jibed · alternative gibe · alternative gybe

1. CanadaUSinformalintransitiveTo accord or agree.

   That explanation doesn’t jibe with the facts.

   2 more examples

   [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 Investigation of the Tariff Commission, United States Senate, Sixty-ninth Congress, First Session […] Part 1 […], Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 529

   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

plural jibes

1. USalternativenauticalAlternative spelling of gybe.

present singular third person jibes · participle present jibing · participle past jibed · past jibed

1. USalternativenauticalAlternative spelling of gybe.