Definition of JIVE

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”).

Examples of jive in a Sentence

Noun

She grew up talking street jive. I'm tired of listening to your jive.

Verb

I know he's just jiving me. Don't take him seriously—he's just jiving. Everyone was jiving to the beat.

Adjective

don't give me that jive talk about me being your new best friend

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

But nothing could have spoken louder than his small, spontaneous gesture, his awe, far more powerful than today's HD histrionics and hand jive. — Martha Teichner, CBS News, "Walter Cronkite and the awe of space exploration," 14 July 2019 That the truck driver was somewhat to blame jives with the immediate descriptions of the crash, which happened on the shuttle’s first day of operation. — Sean O'kane, The Verge, "Self-driving shuttle crashed in Las Vegas because manual controls were locked away," 11 July 2019 This beachside village mixes European hamlet vibe with old-school surf-shop jive, backdropped by a kaleidoscope of restaurants, bars and shops. — Allen Pierleoni, The Mercury News, "A weekend of beachy fun in Capitola-by-the-Sea," 16 June 2019 Each manufacturer speaks hand jive a little differently. — Dan Neil, WSJ, "2019 Acura RDX: Have High-Tech Interfaces Gone Too Far?," 28 Sep. 2018 The variously slinky and driven choreography features such sidelights as pratfalls, teasingly competitive back-and-forth accents, sassy shoulder shimmies and snappy hand jives. — Robert Greskovic, WSJ, "‘Minimalism and Me’ Review: Twyla Tharp Tells Her Story," 19 Nov. 2018 Dance, jive, have the time of your life by watching below. — Rania Aniftos, Billboard, "'Mamma Mia!' Cast Delivers 'Dancing Queen' Lyric Video: Watch," 11 July 2018 The rockabilly cats and kittens who attend festivals like Viva Las Vegas continue to dig a little Louis Prima jive with their Gene Vincent hiccup and twang. — Kenneth Partridge, Billboard, "In Defense of the Swing Revival: Why America Flipped for '40s Sounds in 1998," 29 May 2018 No jive from Shuck: The journeyman, whose contract was selected before the game from Triple-A New Orleans, made an immediate impact with a stand-up triple to right-center in the second inning off Chad Kuhl. — Craig Davis, Sun-Sentinel.com, "JB Shuck's four hits in Marlins debut aids Dillon Peters to bounce-back win," 14 Apr. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

There are other parts of the TWA Hotel experience that don’t jive with present-day nostalgia for mid-century hospitality. — Daisy Alioto, Condé Nast Traveler, "What’s the Real Appeal of the TWA Hotel?," 14 June 2019 Spears has never seemed to fully jive with the idea of fame: as a girl from McComb, Mississippi, who went on to become one of the globe’s biggest and most provocative pop stars, her dual personalities have long seemed at odds with each other. — Christian Allaire, Vogue, "What Exactly Is Going on With Britney Spears?," 15 May 2019 Gray hair—fake or natural—must jive with your coloring to work. — Rory Satran, WSJ, "The Hottest Hair Color of the Moment is...Gray," 17 Jan. 2019 That jives with a video posted to YouTube in September showing a Waymo vehicle struggling to merge onto a California freeway. — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, "Even self-driving leader Waymo is struggling to reach full autonomy," 7 Dec. 2018 Wild and chaotic do not jive with traditional design. — Sienna Fantozzi, House Beautiful, "Everything You Need To Know About Traditional Design," 12 Oct. 2018 America was ready to come inside and learn how to jive an’ wail. — Kenneth Partridge, Billboard, "In Defense of the Swing Revival: Why America Flipped for '40s Sounds in 1998," 29 May 2018 That type of data jives with what dermatologists see in their practices, says Melanie Grossman, a dermatologist based in New York City. — Dina Fine Maron, Scientific American, "Fact or Fiction?: If You Shave (or Wax), Your Hair Will Come Back Thicker," 26 Aug. 2014 This jives with results of a study published last year among more than 8,000 adults, almost 80 percent of whom reported eating fast food at least once a week. — Samantha Cassetty, NBC News, "How to make your fast food habit healthier," 20 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective

Those are subjective metrics that don’t immediately jive with the highly bureaucratized academic landscape, but can be useful at least in trying to imagine cutting off downstream harm. — Sidney Fussell, The Atlantic, "When Research Data Escapes the University," 27 June 2019 Timers and meditation just don’t seem to jive, but the others sound reasonable enough, especially when most digital clocks on your phone or computer won’t have such a large interface to watch the time tick down. — Shannon Liao, The Verge, "Amazon’s Echo Wall Clock now shipping for $30," 14 Dec. 2018 But to Mexican-American youth, the suit was the staple of a rebellious subculture that was defined by jazz music, swing dancing, marijuana smoking, and jive slang. — Mariana Gonzalez, Teen Vogue, "How the Zoot Suit Became a Symbol of Resistance for Mexican-American People," 21 Sep. 2018 This, somehow, does not jive with the optics of what players and coaches are seeing. — Andrew Beaton, WSJ, "Video Review Is Making the World Cup More Accurate—and Uglier, Too," 29 June 2018 Everyone knew this was a rocky idea from the start, not just because Magro had seemingly cheated on Harley with a girl from a club, but because Harley was seven months pregnant, and their lifestyle does not jive with an unborn baby. — Kathryn Lindsay, refinery29.com, "Ronnie Reached A New Low On Last Night's Jersey Shore," 11 May 2018 Good news dancing queens — ABBA has two new songs for you to jive to! — Maria Pasquini, PEOPLE.com, "Thank You for the (New) Music! ABBA Releasing First Songs in 35 Years," 27 Apr. 2018 Carrie White’s slip dress is unimpressive before being covered with blood; Sandy Olsson’s hand jive attire is basic, white ’50s kitsch. — Esther Zuckerman, The Cut, "Finally, a Movie That Gets Prom Dresses Right," 13 Apr. 2018 My muscle-building aspirations just didn't jive with the traditional expectations of Asian women that they were used to. — Jessica Tran, SELF, "How I Learned to Love Being Swole and Asian," 29 Mar. 2018

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