\ ˈjīv 
\
\Definition of jive
(Entry 1 of 3)
1a : glib, deceptive, or foolish talk
tired of listening to his jive
b : the jargon of hipsters
c : a special jargon of difficult or slang terms
street jive
2 : swing music or the dancing performed to it
jive
verbjived; jiving
Definition of jive (Entry 2 of 3)
1 : to say foolish, deceptive, or unserious things to (someone)
He's jiving you.
2 : swing sense 5
1 : to talk in a foolish, deceptive, or unserious way : to talk jive (see jive entry 1 sense 1)
He's just jiving.
2 : to dance to or play jive (see jive entry 1 sense 2)
jive
adjectiveDefinition of jive (Entry 3 of 3)
slang
: phony if you are late getting to heaven, you will give Saint Peter some jive excuse— Langston Hughes
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Other Words from jive
Noun
jivey \ ˈjī-vē \ adjective
\ adjectiveSynonyms & Antonyms for jive
Synonyms: Noun
- argot,
- cant,
- dialect,
- jargon,
- language,
- lingo,
- patois,
- patter,
- shop,
- shoptalk,
- slang,
- terminology,
- vocabulary
Synonyms: Verb
Synonyms: Adjective
- artificial,
- backhanded,
- counterfeit,
- double,
- double-dealing,
- double-faced,
- fake,
- feigned,
- hypocritical,
- insincere,
- Janus-faced,
- left-handed,
- lip,
- mealy,
- mealymouthed,
- Pecksniffian,
- phony
- (also phoney),
- phony-baloney
- (or phoney-baloney),
- pretended,
- two-faced,
- unctuous
Antonyms: Adjective
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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
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Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The second effort foretold disaster, with a training video that showed real tension as Nelly struggled with a jive.
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Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, "'DWTS' recap: 'Bachelorette' Kaitlyn Bristowe channels personal tragedy, two contestants cruelly cut down," 17 Nov. 2020 Their jive is bright and fun, but Kaitlyn seems to lose steam throughout.
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Maggie Fremont, EW.com, "Dancing With the Stars recap: There's no double elimination, but the pressure is still on," 3 Nov. 2020 That slimmed down jives with reports from other Oregon businesses.
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oregonlive, "On Sunday, Sugarpine will sell you drive-thru ice cream for Mother’s Day -- so long as you wear a mask," 9 May 2020 The four sets of dancers performed two dances each, earning votes from viewers and judges' scores, which were weighed equally.
The first round saw Ally and Sasha zooming out to a perfect 30 for 30 from the judges with a spot-on jive.
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Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, "'Dancing With the Stars': Who is the new champion after nail-biting finals?," 26 Nov. 2019 The 21-year-old model, along with her dance pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy, tied for the highest score on Monday night's show, but the stellar performance — a high-energy jive — wasn't enough to save the duo, and they were sent home.
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Laura Hanrahan, Woman's Day, "Sailor Brinkley-Cook Says 'DWTS' Helped Her Conquer Her Lifelong Stage Fright," 25 Oct. 2019 During the World Series, entire baseball stadiums acted out the video’s shark-bite hand jive.
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Ben Sisario, New York Times, "‘Baby Shark’ Smells Money Onstage," 15 Nov. 2019 On Monday, her jive earned her three 9's from the judges, for a total score of 27.
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Marianne Garvey, CNN, "'Dancing With the Stars' shock elimination leaves fans shook," 22 Oct. 2019 The latest comes direct from the world of hand jives, baby.
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Nick Romano, EW.com, "Grease TV musical spin-off Rydell High ordered at HBO Max," 15 Oct. 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb All of that would jive with a guy who is trying to lift the ball more to create extra carry.
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Evan Grant, Dallas News, "Rangers wrap-up: 5 offseason questions to answer, free agents to keep in mind and MLB draft prospects to know," 24 Sep. 2020 Potential spoiler warning: Consisting of six issues, that volume sees Beta unleash the dead on the group in the aftermath of Alpha's death, which so far jives with the show.
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Nick Romano, EW.com, "The Walking Dead (pseudo) season finale recap: All hail Princess!," 6 Apr. 2020 For the gently jiving Mr. Businessman, not the beat, but that’s okay.
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Seija Rankin, EW.com, "Read an exclusive excerpt from Stephen King's newest book If It Bleeds," 21 Apr. 2020 Mayfield, Garrett and Ward are the only picks to reach the quality threshold, which probably jives with how most fans viewed their rookie years.
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Scott Patsko, cleveland, "How many Browns draft picks can be impact starters in 2020?," 21 Apr. 2020 This theory jives with the approach of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, in redefining balance.
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S. Mitra Kalita For Cnn Business Perspectives, CNN, "9 reasons the Indian CEO keeps coming to the rescue," 2 Feb. 2020 All were built after World War II to cheaply house the masses in a way that jived with communist ideology.
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Laura Mallonee, WIRED, "Ugly or Beautiful? The Housing Blocks Communism Left Behind," 6 Aug. 2019 This jives with what Steward said in his original Instagram announcement.
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Thom Craver, CBS News, "Patrick Stewart introduces new "Star Trek: Picard" trailer at San Diego Comic-Con," 20 July 2019 There are other parts of the TWA Hotel experience that don’t jive with present-day nostalgia for mid-century hospitality.
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Daisy Alioto, Condé Nast Traveler, "What’s the Real Appeal of the TWA Hotel?," 14 June 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective The couple spoke to Entertainment Tonight after their Nov. 2 performances — a jive and samba relay — which received mostly positive feedback from all the judges. . .
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Christy Piña, Woman's Day, "'DWTS' Kaitlyn Bristowe Thinks Carrie Ann Inaba Has 'Different Expectations' For Her," 4 Nov. 2020 For example, AJ McLean and Cheryl Burke have already danced the jive, foxtrot, quickstep, cha-cha, waltz, samba, and tango during previous weeks, so each of those dance styles will be off the table.
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Kelsey Hurwitz, Woman's Day, "This Week's 'Dancing With the Stars' Relay Could Turn the Competition on Its Head," 30 Oct. 2020 However, the quality of the video doesn't quite jive with the rest of the episode.
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Shannon Carlin, refinery29.com, "Why The Politician Season 2 Includes That Strange FaceTime Scene," 21 June 2020 However, that endeavor didn’t jive with his driving privileges.
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John Benson, cleveland, "‘Alcohol Flush Support’ pills don’t help drunk driver escape arrest: North Royalton Police Blotter," 27 May 2020 Green’s reputation for chance taking didn’t always jive with statistics, however.
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Zach Osterman, Indianapolis Star, "IU basketball player review: Devonte Green gave Hoosiers something no one else could," 23 Mar. 2020 With that in mind, a wholesale treatment of the record is more chamber recital than jive pageant.
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oregonlive, "29 February concerts to love for Portland’s best live music," 28 Jan. 2020 Chuckling at female servants accidentally shot in the face just doesn’t jive.
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Katie Walsh, San Diego Union-Tribune, "Review: ‘Ready or Not’ sacrifices horror for irony and laughs to skewer the 1 percent," 22 Aug. 2019 Flannery, 55, first performed a jive on Monday during the individual dance portion of the evening and earned a 24/30 from judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli.
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Natalie Stone, PEOPLE.com, "DWTS: The Office's Kate Flannery Is Eliminated," 4 Nov. 2019
See MoreThese 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.
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From the Editors at Merriam-Webster
'Jive' vs. 'Jibe' vs. 'Gibe'
'Jive' vs. 'Jibe' vs. 'Gibe'
We hope you jibe with our advice.
Statistics for jive
Last Updated
30 Nov 2020
Look-up Popularity
Cite this Entry
“Jive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jive. Accessed 20 Jan. 2021.
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More Definitions for jive
jive
nounEnglish Language Learners Definition of jive
(Entry 1 of 2)
informal + somewhat old-fashioned
: informal language that includes many slang terms
: deceptive or foolish talk
: a type of fast lively music that was especially popular in the early part of the 20th century also : a dance performed to this type of music
jive
verbEnglish Language Learners Definition of jive (Entry 2 of 2)
informal + somewhat old-fashioned
US : to say foolish or deceptive things to (someone)
: to dance to or play jive music
See the full definition for jive in the English Language Learners Dictionary
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Time Traveler for jive
The first known use of jive was in 1928
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