jive
Americannoun
-
swing music or early jazz.
-
the jargon associated with swing music and early jazz.
-
Slang. deceptive, exaggerated, or meaningless talk.
Don't give me any of that jive!
verb (used without object)
-
to play jive.
-
to dance to jive; jitterbug.
-
Slang. to engage in kidding, teasing, or exaggeration.
verb (used with object)
adjective
noun
-
a style of lively and jerky dance performed to jazz and, later, to rock and roll, popular esp in the 1940s and 1950s
-
Also called: jive talk. a variety of American slang spoken chiefly by Black people, esp jazz musicians
-
-
slang deliberately misleading or deceptive talk
-
( as modifier )
jive talk
-
verb
-
(intr) to dance the jive
-
slang to mislead; tell lies (to)
Other Word Forms
- jiver noun
Etymology
Origin of jive
First recorded in 1925–30; origin obscure; alleged to be an alteration of gibe 1, though the shift in sense and phonetic change are unexplained
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Just because a filmmaker does something with one film that a viewer may not jive with doesn’t mean their work should be refuted forevermore.
From Salon
Cantrell says he’s experimenting with “vibe coding External link,” which I hear a lot, and sometimes mistakenly call jive coding, which works, too.
From Barron's
Back in the actual 1990s, ice dancers cycled through traditional dances: samba, blues, polka, rumba, quickstep, tango, jive, paso doble, Viennese waltz.
They also performed a football-themed jive to One Way Or Another by Blondie, earning them a standing ovation - and their second perfect score of the night.
From BBC
In the same compilation, Carson explained that a jive is difficult for a first dance and praised Irwin’s positivity.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
