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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To make taunting, heckling, or jeering remarks.
  2. v. To deride with taunting remarks.
  3. n. A derisive remark.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To utter taunting or sarcastic words; rail; sneer; scoff: absolutely or with at.
  2. Synonyms Jeer, Scoff, etc. See sneer.
  3. To speak of or to with taunting or sarcastic words; deride; scoff at; rail at; ridicule.
  4. n. A tauntingly or contemptuously sarcastic remark; a scoff; a railing; an expression of sarcastic scorn.
  5. n. Synonyms Taunt, jeer, sneer, fleer, insult, reproach.
  6. Nautical See jibe.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A facetious or insulting remark; a jeer or taunt.
  2. v. To perform a jibe (2, 3).
  3. v. To agree.
  4. v. To cause to execute a gibe (2, 3).

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To cast reproaches and sneering expressions; to rail; to utter taunting, sarcastic words; to flout; to fleer; to scoff.
  2. v. To reproach with contemptuous words; to deride; to scoff at; to mock.
  3. n. An expression of sarcastic scorn; a sarcastic jest; a scoff; a taunt; a sneer.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. laugh at with contempt and derision
  2. v. be compatible, similar or consistent; coincide in their characteristics
  3. n. an aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect

Etymologies

  1. Possibly from obsolete French giber, to handle roughly, play, from Old French.

Examples

  • “Paddy Ashdown, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats who took part in the IPPR study, recalled the gibe by the late U.S. secretary of state Dean Acheson in 1962: "Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.”

    Newsweek: Forget the Great In Britain

  • “To a thoroughly serious person, to a person like Lord Chesterfield (who was indeed very serious in his own way, and abhorred proverbial philosophy), or to one who cannot away with the introduction of a quip in connection with a solemn subject, and who thinks that indulgence in a gibe is a clear proof that the writer has no solid argument to produce, Fuller must be nothing but a puzzle or a disgust.”

    A History of Elizabethan Literature

  • “We have seen the kind of gibe with which Agricola's eloquence was greeted at Pavia.”

    The Age of Erasmus Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London

  • “They will be bold that may venture to break a gibe on the man-at-arms for the follies of the page; and I trust, that ere we return I shall have done something more worthy of note than hallooing a hound after a deer, or scrambling a crag for a kite’s nest.””

    The Abbot

  • “I did not weep; but I knelt down, and, with a full heart, thanked my guiding spirit for conducting me in safety to the place where I hoped, notwithstanding my adversary's gibe, to meet and grapple with him.”

    Chapter 7

  • “But when speaking of expenses on Monday's earnings call, finance chief John Gerspach discovered a good way to get a gibe in at rivals: We don't have a great name for this.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Overheard: Unlabeled Mission

  • “She did not dignify his gibe with an answer but instead remained focused on texting, her speeding thumbs a blur.”

    Simon & Schuster: Parents Behaving Badly

  • “I want to make the tax code so simple that even Timothy Geithner can file his taxes on time," he said, in a gibe at the current Treasury secretary, whose tax fumbles emerged during his confirmation hearings.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Perry Takes Up Flat-Tax Banner

  • “Miller R-Manassas on Thursday for making fiery claims about illegal immigrants and the law that VACOLAO says don't gibe with the facts.”

    The Washington Post: Virginia Latino groups challenge Manassas delegate's claims

  • “It was meant as a good-natured gibe between friends.”

    Simon & Schuster: Western Man

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘gibe’.

Comments

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‘gibe’ has been looked up 2441 times, loved by 3 people, added to 25 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 7.