jibe

verb \ ˈjīb \

|Updated on: 24 Jun 2018

Editor's Note: jive vs. jibe

Definition of jibe

jibed; jibing

intransitive verb

: to be in accord : agree —usually used with with

a story that doesn't jibe with the facts

Recent Examples of jibe from the Web

But because any information that goes into a black hole is gone for good, an event horizon doesn’t jibe with quantum mechanics.

— marcus woo, Scientific American, "Gravitational “Echoes” Could Reveal Colliding Wormholes," 19 June 2018
Still, the figures seem to jibe with news that the HomePod failed to meet Apple’s expectations.

— nick statt, The Verge, "Apple sold an estimated 600,000 HomePods in the first quarter of the year," 17 May 2018
But that final memory doesn’t jibe with the reality of her disappearance: Joanne DeGuio said her daughter left abruptly one day, not even bothering to take anything with her.

— vinny vella, Philly.com, "Police promise renewed push in search for missing Drexel Hill woman," 7 May 2018
For other players, family life and tennis do not always jibe so smoothly.

— david waldstein, New York Times, "For a Doubles Champion, the Title That Counts Is Dad," 19 Apr. 2018
Yet his pugnacious reputation doesn't jibe with his appearance.

— john blake, CNN, "Remembering the theologian who took on the hypocrisy of the white church," 30 Apr. 2018
The Fed’s view doesn’t jibe with the recent hopes and dreams of some investors.

— justin lahart, WSJ, "Sorry, But The Fed Will Be Safe Not Sorry," 21 Mar. 2018
Could be, depending on what that 88 and 92 mean (rating-system point values can differ), and whether or not the nose and mouth behind the scores jibe with yours.

— michael austin, chicagotribune.com, "Not everyone's a fan of wine scores, but there's a way to use them," 25 Apr. 2018
Those views, though, do not seem to jibe with the outlook of the more hawkish members of the Trump administration, who have insisted that Afghan and U.S. forces must regain battlefield momentum before any negotiations occur.

— greg jaffe, Washington Post, "A Dubai shopping trip and a missed chance to capture the head of the Taliban," 24 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'jibe.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

jive vs. jibe

People began confusing jive and jibe almost immediately after jive entered our language in the late 1920s. In particular, jive is often used as a variant for the sense of jibe meaning “agree,” as in “that doesn’t jive with my memory of what happened.” This use of jive, although increasingly common, is widely considered to be an error. Jibe, however, is accepted as a variant spelling of an entirely different word, which is gibe (“to utter taunting words”).

Origin and Etymology of jibe

origin unknown

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1813

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

jibe

verb

variant spelling of gibe

intransitive verb

: to utter taunting words

transitive verb

: to deride or tease with taunting words

gibed her about her weight

Other Nautical Terms

avast, aweigh, flotsam, jib, keel, lee, port, starboard, stay

jibe

verb

variants: or less commonly gybe

Definition of jibe

jibed also gybed; jibing also gybing

intransitive verb

1 : to shift suddenly and forcibly from one side to the other —used of a fore-and-aft sail or its boom

was the most amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder, and how the sail jibed, and filled this way or that way as the course we sailed changed
—Daniel Defoe

the cutter had lost all four foremost men by the violent jibing of a boom
—Herman Melville

2 : to change a vessel's course when sailing with the wind so that as the stern passes through the eye of the wind the boom swings to the opposite side

transitive verb

: to cause (a sail or vessel) to jibe