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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Performed with a natural, offhand ease: glib conversation.
  2. adj. Showing little thought, preparation, or concern: a glib response to a complex question.
  3. adj. Marked by ease and fluency of speech or writing that often suggests or stems from insincerity, superficiality, or deceitfulness.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To run smoothly; move freely, as the tongue.
  2. To make smooth; cause to run smoothly, as the tongue; make glib.
  3. Smooth; slippery: as, ice is glib.
  4. Running smoothly or sleekly; plausibly voluble: as, a glib tongue.
  5. n. A bushy head of hair, formerly common among the Irish. See the extracts.
  6. n. A man wearing such a bush of hair.
  7. To castrate.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Having a ready flow of words but lacking accuracy or understanding; superficial; shallow.
  2. adj. Smooth or slippery.
  3. adj. Artfully persuasive in nature.
  4. n. mud, mire

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Smooth; slippery.
  2. adj. Speaking or spoken smoothly and with flippant rapidity; fluent; voluble.
  3. v. To make glib.
  4. n. A thick lock of hair, hanging over the eyes.
  5. v. To castrate; to geld; to emasculate.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. having only superficial plausibility
  2. adj. artfully persuasive in speech
  3. adj. marked by lack of intellectual depth

Etymologies

  1. Possibly of Low German origin; see ghel-2 in Indo-European roots.

Examples

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Lists

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

Comments

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  • Prolagus Thank you! Now I need a word to remember your quotations. Maybe glib? Oct 21, 2008

  • frindley Or you can use a techie (GLib) reference, but interpret in the usual sense:
    "Why o' why glib? Don't you know that glib abort()s when memory allocation fails?" Oct 21, 2008

  • reesetee How about this:

    "What is the question now placed before society with the glib assurance which to me is most astonishing? That question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I, my lord, I am on the side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence those new fangled theories." -- Benjamin Disraeli, 1864 Oct 21, 2008

  • frindley Well, you made me go look it up and I discover Dutch origins…
    1. ready and fluent, often thoughtlessly or insincerely so: glib speakers; a glib tongue.
    2. easy, as action or manner. backformation from obsolete glibbery slippery, from Dutch glibberig

    Would "glibbery slippery" be sufficient to help you remember? Oct 21, 2008

  • Prolagus I need a quotation to remember the meaning of this word. Help! Oct 21, 2008

‘glib’ has been looked up 4976 times, loved by 9 people, added to 91 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 7.