jibe

Etymology 1

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.

noun

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.
   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
   [George] Carlin's opening-night monologue included some blunt gibes at organized religion which would almost certainly have been cut out of any other network show. 27 October 1975, Jeff Greenfield, “Ragged but Funny”, in New York, volume 8, number 43, New York, N.Y.: New York Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 65, column 3

verb

1. (transitive) To reproach with contemptuous words; to deride, to mock, to taunt.
   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 2019-03-10, 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
2. (transitive) To say in a mocking or taunting manner.
3. (intransitive) To make a mocking remark or remarks; to jeer.
   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, book 2, section I, page 182
   "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

Etymology 2

Origin unknown; perhaps related to chime (“to cause to sound in harmony”).

verb

1. (intransitive, Canada, US, informal) 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. 13 May 1926, 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

Etymology 3

See gybe.

noun

1. (nautical, now chiefly US) Alternative spelling of gybe

verb

1. (nautical, now chiefly US) Alternative spelling of gybe