Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Performed with a natural, offhand ease: glib conversation.
- adj. Showing little thought, preparation, or concern: a glib response to a complex question.
- adj. Marked by ease and fluency of speech or writing that often suggests or stems from insincerity, superficiality, or deceitfulness.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To run smoothly; move freely, as the tongue.
- To make smooth; cause to run smoothly, as the tongue; make glib.
- Smooth; slippery: as, ice is glib.
- Running smoothly or sleekly; plausibly voluble: as, a glib tongue.
- n. A bushy head of hair, formerly common among the Irish. See the extracts.
- n. A man wearing such a bush of hair.
- To castrate.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having a ready flow of words but lacking accuracy or understanding; superficial; shallow.
- adj. Smooth or slippery.
- adj. Artfully persuasive in nature.
- n. mud, mire
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Smooth; slippery.
- adj. Speaking or spoken smoothly and with flippant rapidity; fluent; voluble.
- v. To make glib.
- n. A thick lock of hair, hanging over the eyes.
- v. To castrate; to geld; to emasculate.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having only superficial plausibility
- adj. artfully persuasive in speech
- adj. marked by lack of intellectual depth
Etymologies
- Possibly of Low German origin; see ghel-2 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Been-there-and-back soul, an ability to separate the glib from the gothic.”
The Nightingales of Troy: Summary and book reviews of The Nightingales of Troy by Alice Fulton.
“COURIC: Yes, I was going to say that ` s a weird use of the word glib, but whatever.”
“Just the suggestion of it and the underlying tension in his voice had caused the tongue he had termed glib to stick to the roof of her mouth.”
Heaven's Price
“He calls Keira Knightley 'brilliant,' Robert Downey Jr. 'glib'-and turned down' The Girl”
“During news coverage in 2007 of the story, Grant was referred to as glib, but Miller said that's not how he appears today.”
“Of course, we all remember when Tom Cruise went off on Lauer, calling him "glib" as they went at it over antidepressants.”
“Second, Tom pointed out that Matt Lauer actually was very "glib" (shallow) and didn't know what he was talking about.”
“During a discussion of the drug Ritalin a suddenly arrogant Cruise said Lauer was "glib" and that he "should be a little bit more responsible in knowing what [Ritalin] is.”
“I want to say the problem is it's glib, but I'm not sure 'glib' is the right word; it seems to try to make a joke out of exploitation, with an additional attempt to make sickness a 'card.”
“But you didn't offer your opinion about the merits of his actual comments, only about which debater was "glib", but whose main point was "quite accurate".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘glib’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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The weird, the wonderful and the plain hilarious
Loved for their ingenuity, an exact description, or simply for the pure joy of it.
acidulous, aprosdoketon, higgledy-piggledy, lexicographical, ninja, audacious, somnabulist, shivaree, amorphous, quidnunc, glib, melancholy and 353 more...
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Words-I-tend-to-forget
I have read them many times before and looked them up as well, and yet I forget their meaning. So, this list should collect them for me for revision.
glib, audacious, imminent, deflect, convention, calytrix, overbearing, regressive, condescending, crouch, impasse, agonistic and 11 more...
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mots justes
No true synonyms, no other word will do.
dysphemism, nyehre, conflate, onomatopœic, galumph, zeitgeist, mercenary, theomeny, git, snarky, sass, smarmy and 43 more...
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xulilux's list
leviathan, destitute, iapetus, caesura, ineffable, eschew, phosphene, fungible, antediluvian, nomenclature, mottle, europa and 84 more...
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Rexicon
brazen, insipid, cuss, penchant, salacious, titillate, lurid, schlemiel, interlope, masquerade, supercilious, action-taking and 51 more...
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Words that can be spelled on an upside-down cal...
Imagine my joy when I was wearing my calculator watch and was first introduced to someone named Leslie - there was exactly enough room on the display for 317537.14.
Edit: I've discove...hi, hello, leslie, sheesh, she, bells, hells, hog, boss, goggles, he, bob and 69 more...
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-ib
zib, glib, fib, squib, lib, nib, bib, dib, mib, gib, jib, Carib and 27 more...
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Amazing words used by Paul Keating
shellback, spiv, glib, ordinary, recalcitrant, dash capability, footloose
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Stupid, Stupid Words
Those annoying bloody new buzz words like, "gamification". I still don't know what it means! The other day I heard a "dill" use "brand" to describe a political belief. Then there is "mapping" in ot...
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