▪ I. gibe, jibe, n.1
(dʒaɪb)
Also 6–9 gybe, 6 jybe, 6– gibe.
[f. the vb.]
A scoffing or sneering speech; a taunt, flout, or jeer.
| 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 8 Besides sum other trim iests and iybes of his. 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. i. 209 Alas poore Yorick..Where be your Jibes now? 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. (1847) 76/2 To be girded with frumps and curtall gibes. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 300 ¶1 Their aversion would be too strong for little Gibes every moment. 1757 Dyer Fleece (1807) 65 They..cast about their gibes. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. lxix, Provoking envious gibe from each pedestrian churl. 1835 Marryat Jac. Faithf. iv, Many were the bitter gibes and inuendoes which I was obliged to hear. 1874 Disraeli Sp. 5 Aug. in Hansard's Debates CCXXI. 1358 He is a great master of gibes, and flouts, and jeers. 1885 Black White Heather i, The jibes that seemed to form their farewells for the night. |
▪ II. † gibe, n.2 Obs.—1
[shortened form of gibbet.]
A gibbet.
| 1590 T. Fenne Frutes, Hecuba's Mishaps D d b, They his body ript, And naked on a gibe they hang for Troyans there to see. |
▪ III. gibe, jibe, v.
(dʒaɪb)
Also 6 jybe, 6–9 gybe, (7 ghybe).
[Of obscure origin: perh. ad. OF. giber, explained by Godef. (who refers to mod. dial. giber to kick) as meaning to shake, trans. and intr. (‘secouer, s'agiter’), but in the examples app. meaning ‘to handle roughly in sport’, ‘to use horseplay’. Cf. jib v.]
1. intr. To speak sneeringly; to utter taunts; to jeer, flout, scoff. Const. at, † with. Also dial. to scold.
| 1567 Turbervile Epit., etc. 68 Speake fayre, and make the weather cleere To him that gybes with thee. a 1592 Greene Alphonsus iii. Wks. 1831 II. 33 You shall perceive Medea did not gibe. a 1639 W. Whately Prototypes i. vi. (1640) 72 Wicked wittes will never cease gybing at those good things that crosse their sense and reason. 1674–91 Ray N.C. Words (E.D.S.), Gibe, Ghybe, to scold. 1722 De Foe Moll Flanders (1840) 5 Well, madam, forsooth, says she, gibing at me; you would be a gentle⁓woman. 1821 Galt Ann. Parish xxxv. (1895) 133 The rising generation were taught to jibe at its [the Christian religion's] holiest ordinances [etc.]. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. vi. (1876) 347 The old fiddler gibed at him for his ugliness. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) I. ii. 58 Richardson..is always gibing at Fielding. |
2. trans. To address with scoffs and sneers; to flout, taunt.
| 1582 T. Watson Centurie of Loue lxvii. in Poems (Arb.) 103 When other whiles he passeth Lemnos Ile, Vnhappy boy he gybes the Clubfoote Smith. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 74 You..with taunts Did gibe my Misiue out of audience. 1666 Wood Life (O.H.S.) II. 90 The deane..would be alwaie gibing him at meales. 1733 Swift Legion Club Wks. 1755 IV. i. 208 Draw the beasts as I describe them From their features, while I gibe them. 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 273 Gibe him for a dolt. 1852 Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. viii. (1883) 394 Zenobia soon saw the truth, and gibed me about it, one day. 1893 Jessopp Stud. by Recluse i. 33 Evil demons might chatter and gibe and twit him at his prayers. |
▪ IV. gibe
var. jibe U.S., to chime in (with).