jibe

verb \ ˈjīb \

|Updated on: 5 Aug 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

The numbers pretty much jibe with recent statewide polls showing Newsom well ahead and the two Republicans battling for the second spot.

— matier & ross, San Francisco Chronicle, "In Bay Area, Newsom leads big in race for governor — 2 Republicans are next," 16 May 2018
Such a protectionist tool will directly impact enterprises worldwide, including those of the United States, and does not jibe with international rules on resolving trade problems.

— david meyer, Fortune, "'The Trump Administration Is Behaving Like a Gang of Hoodlums:' Words Fly as U.S.-China Trade War Begins," 6 July 2018
Old pagan themes remained, but the pagan names were changed to jibe with the Christian Bible.

— ryan p. smith, Smithsonian, "Unfurling the Rich Tapestry of Armenian Culture," 25 June 2018
Yet the notion that Regan could be the perpetrator did seem to jibe with certain facts.

— ruth padawer, New York Times, "Should Statutes of Limitations for Rape Be Abolished?," 19 June 2018
Executives like the steady—and often higher—stream of fees such accounts generate, and many say they better jibe with a fiduciary model that puts clients’ interests first and minimizes conflicts of interest.

— lisa beilfuss, WSJ, "Merrill Considers Lifting Ban on Commission-Based Retirement Accounts," 15 June 2018
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

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