jive

[ jahyv ]

noun

1. swing music or early jazz.
2. the jargon associated with swing music and early jazz.
3. Slang. deceptive, exaggerated, or meaningless talk:

   Don't give me any of that jive!

verb (used without object)

, jived, jiv·ing.

1. to play jive.
2. to dance to jive; jitterbug.
3. Slang. to engage in kidding, teasing, or exaggeration.

verb (used with object)

, jived, jiv·ing.

1. Slang. to tease; fool; kid:

   Stop jiving me!

adjective

1. Slang. insincere, pretentious, or deceptive.

jive

/ dʒaɪv /

noun

1. a style of lively and jerky dance performed to jazz and, later, to rock and roll, popular esp in the 1940s and 1950s
2. Also calledjive talk a variety of American slang spoken chiefly by Black people, esp jazz musicians
3. 1. deliberately misleading or deceptive talk
   2. ( as modifier )

      jive talk

verb

1. intr to dance the jive
2. slang.
   to mislead; tell lies (to)

Derived Forms

• ˈjiver, noun

Other Words From

• jiver noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of jive¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of jive¹

C20: of unknown origin

Example Sentences

Adapting ideas used to design piezoelectric robots gives soft robotics a new outlook, potentially leading to completely artificial materials that jive with our bodies.

From Singularity Hub 

Melora Hardin, of The Office and Transparent fame, did a jive to the song “Hound Dog” inspired by Stephen King’s Cujo.

From The Daily Beast

That jives with some more recent guidance from the ACSM that suggests progressing the amount of weight you lift so that it feels like a difficulty of about 8 out of 10.

From Outside Online

More weakly fused participants were, perhaps unsurprisingly, much less biased, deleting about 0 to 9 percent of comments that didn’t jive with their views.

From Nautilus

The piece—an intended satire of affirmative action—was not received quite as warmly as the “I speak Jive” scene from Airplane!

From The Daily Beast

Instead, she wanted to listen to her music and go disco-ing or to some jive concert.

From The Daily Beast

Steele publicized the boycott on his blog, Tie-Dyed Jive in the (415), and sent out a press release promoting it.

From The Daily Beast

Then, when Ali's jive began to bend toward something like truth, Lipsyte snatched those thoughts for his column.

From The Daily Beast

Related Words

• chat
• comment
• communication
• conference
• consultation
• debate
• discussion
• exchange
• gossip
• hearing
• observation
• questioning
• remark
• speech
• talk
• visit