Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To shift a fore-and-aft sail from one side of a vessel to the other while sailing before the wind so as to sail on the opposite tack.
- v. To cause (a sail) to jibe.
- n. The act of jibing.
- v. Informal To be in accord; agree: Your figures jibe with mine.
- v. Variant of gibe.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Nautical, to cause (a fore-and-aft sail) to swing over to the other side when the wind is aft or on the quarter.
- Nautical, to change from one tack to the other without going about; shift a fore-and-aft Bail from one side to the other when the wind is aft or on the quarter.
- To agree; be in harmony or accord; work together: as, the two plans did not seem to jibe.
- n. See gibe.
- A less common form of jib.
Wiktionary
- n. A facetious or insulting remark, a jeer or taunt.
- n. A manoeuver in which the stern of a sailing boat or ship crosses the wind.
- n. sudden sweep of the boom of a sailboat across from one side of the boat to the other.
- v. To perform a jibe
- v. To agree.
- v. To cause to execute a jibe
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To shift, as the boom of a fore-and-aft sail, from one side of a vessel to the other when the wind is aft or on the quarter. See gybe.
- v. To change a ship's course so as to cause a shifting of the boom. See jibe, v. t., and gybe.
- v. To agree; to harmonize.
WordNet 3.0
- v. shift from one side of the ship to the other
- n. an aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect
- v. be compatible, similar or consistent; coincide in their characteristics
Etymologies
- Alteration (perhaps influenced by jib1) of gybe, from obsolete Dutch gijben.Origin unknown.
Examples
“And while your whole jibe is aimed at business and rocking out your career life, what if your question of “What am I afraid of?” was applied to relationships?”
“Aaaand, just like the "omg, 90% of the Chrysler dealerships closed were owned by Republicans" garbage, this fun little math jibe is total crap.”
“Cue the wingnuts to claim that this mild political jibe is hate speech.”
“I do not believe in unilateral disarmament, but I do believe the truth-telling jibe is always mightier than the partisan grunt.”
Think Progress » Malkin Doesn’t Understand How Congress Works
“The standard reply to the Work at Tescos” jibe is “Well if you were a manager at Tescos you would have bankrupted them years ago” on January 1, 2010 at 3: 17 pm Sherriff Roscoe.”
If Carlsberg Made Justice Secretaries………… « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
“The title is in honour of Australia’s first female deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, jibe from the enlightened Mr Heffernan – stating she was unfit for leadership because she was” deliberately barren”.”
“These terms jibe nicely with Mr. Putin's own rhetoric of threats and fear.”
The Wall Street Journal: Our Struggle Against Tyranny in Russia
“Cameron's office defended the prime minister, saying the jibe was a humorous remark referencing an insurance advertisement.”
“He is good with a political attack or jibe, which is appealing to voters trying to find the magic trick to beating an incumbent.”
“The jibe was the most personal of a number aimed at political opponents in Mrs Harman's address to the Scottish Labour Party conference in Oban.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘jibe’.
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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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Move it!
Awesome actions or motions.
celerity, peremptory, volplane, founder, whirl, gallopade, rathe, jounce, jive, jink, jibe, jectigation and 17 more...

bilby "That jibes with what Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine President Dr. Neal Barnard says in his book, The Power of Your Plate, in which he explains that 'early humans had diets very much like other great apes, which is to say a largely plant-based diet, drawing on foods we can pick with our hands.'"
- Kathy Freston, Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians, huffingtonpost.com, 11 June 2009.
I'd never come across this use of jibe until today. Jun 13, 2009
oroboros Accord v. barbed riposte. Dec 3, 2007